Damning stat exposes West Ham player weakness

Jarrod Bowen is one of the most substituted players in the Premier League and now a damning stat could explain the reason why!

Bowen has featured in all 26 Premier League fixtures this season starting 23 of his outings to date.

Only Tomas Soucek (8) and Michail Antonio (7) have also scored more often in the top-flight for the Irons than Bowen (5), who is without a goal in his last seven appearances. He was benched for Pablo Fornals to take his place on the right-flank against Manchester City on Saturday.

Kevin Phillips has quoted Wyscout data showing that Bowen is one of only three players across Europe’s top-five leagues allow the opposition to make a higher number of progressive passes. Moyes prides himself on defensive discipline within his teams and Phillips says he does not believe there is room for Bowen to be carried by others.

“Stats don’t lie,” Phillips told Football Insider. “In possession, he’s great. But ultimately, out of possession, you’ve got to know your positions, you’ve got to know when to press, you’ve got to know where to show someone and where not to show them.

“If you don’t get it quite right at this level, you get punished. It’s no surprise because he’s more of an offensive player, defending is not his main duty. But we all know that nowadays you’ve got to be able to do both.