26 Comments

Haller’s hell goes on…as does ours

Seb Haller in a familiar hands on hips pose

My immediate reaction these days when hearing the name Sebastian Haller is: “When will Mikey Antonio be back.”

And it seems to me – looking at the one sentence David Moyes issued about the French centre forward after the Liverpool game – that despite the diplomatic words he feels exactly the same.

His verbatim quote was: “I think Sebastian’s got something to offer us and he’s got a lot of good attributes and hopefully he will show them in the coming weeks and months to come.”

He didn’t go on to explain what’s on offer, what the attributes are and must know that once the main man is back he won’t have much chance to show them.

It’s all a bit similar to the words he used about Mark Noble when questioned on his future a few weeks ago when he said: “Mark Noble is a very big player at this club and will be playing a lot of games for us.”

Err, he didn’t even make it into the squad yesterday at Anfield!

I don’t know what Seb Haller is – I don’t know what he’s good at and if the club is very clever they will do some sort of January swap deal with maybe a few bob thrown in for him.

He’s scored goals wherever he’s been in the past FC Utrecht and Entracht Frankfurt but let’s not call a spade a shovel right now he looks entirely useless.

It’s all well and good saying he needs a partner and that he’s being played all wrong but the reality is, surely, good players can change their game.

He had a huge chance to impress against Liverpool and we got absolutely nothing. To be frank at times it was like playing with 10 men. He had a huge opportunity to impress and blew it!

Next weekend it’s Fulham and if we get a similar performance we will know for sure he’s not truly a Premier League player.

How do we get rid of the bloke? I have absolutely no idea, but I’m convinced it will have to be done very soon one way or the other and hopefully in January.

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

26 comments on “Haller’s hell goes on…as does ours

  1. Hugh, I know it’s your site and you’re fully entitled to express your opinion… But what I would say is that, I have now come to the conclusion that, if I were in a tight spot, I really wouldn’t want to have to count on you… You did it with Slav and you’re now doing it with Haller… As soon as someone struggles, you cut them adrift, even if you have previously supported them when things have been going reasonably well… Anyone can be your friend when things are going well for you, but you really find out who’s worth a toss when they’re not… Just something you might reflect on?… Cheers, mate…

    • LOL – fair enough. That’s why people get the sack John. You don’t stick by people who are failing in football given the money they earn and price they cost. If they can’t hack it you get rid. No I won’t reflect on it mate nor will I sermonise lol . I did the same with Pellegrini – perhaps I was wrong all along and they were all top managers. It’s called football not social intercourse. Don’t confuse care and concern in society with whether a player is capable of playing Premier League football. Thank you for your attempted morality lesson. Nether are my ‘friend’by the way. Just blokes earning huge amounts of money from doing what they love.

    • It’s the lack of effort, interest and determination that really angers me. If he is truly a talented, top class footballer, surely to god he can adapt his game a little. Do we have to completely change our whole shape and style of play, which suits everyone else, just because one guy can’t give a toss?

    • Agree to an extent. The guys who run this site are far too quick both to eulogise and throw people under the bus and I definitely remember Hugh proclaiming Haller as the genuine real deal number 9, 20 goal a season saviour we’d be missing for so long, but at the same time, Haller is a joke at the moment. He gets handed a chance to save his Hammers career with Mikey’s injury and does absolutely nothing. It was pathetic today. Yes, the game didn’t suit him, but he made no effort at all. Just moans and wanders around. The game was so dull the commentary talked about his complete lack of interest and application for about 10 minutes. Really poor.

      • Everyone can change their mind. We run a site in which all views are welcome even those from ourselves 🙂 Morality lessons are not required or of much interest anyway when it comes to football. Things change. Perhaps you can remind me of where Hugh proclaimed Haller as the genuine real deal number 9, 20 goal a season saviour. Not the case and he certainly isn’t a saviour. There was only one of those and he lived 2,000 years ago. Have never used the word about football in my life!!!!!

  2. Haller is lazy. He will probably perform better against lesser teams as we should get more balls into the box.
    Frankly, Yarmo should start ahead of Haller up front.

    • Yep, Yarmo (or the tea Lady) to start ahead of Haller I’m afraid. He started well in his first couple of games and I have no idea what’s happened since but we just haven’t got time to nurse him (or anyone else) back to form.

      As stated above, it was like having 10 men tonight, we cannot afford that luxury and Haller shouldn’t be picked next week because it’s ‘only’ Fulham. If Fulham turn us over, confidence will rapidly disappear and all the hard work and recent results will be meaningless.

  3. People can go on as much as they like about him not getting the right service, but the fact is the bloke doesn’t even look interested and can’t be bothered to try either. He’s just pinching money. Play Yarmo down the middle until Antonio is back, at least he put some effort in when he came on.

  4. I did say I was worried about only having this oaf in the squad if (when) Antonio gets injured.

    Its very typical west ham really.

    Has anyone got ian Pearce’s number ?

  5. I really struggle to see what the people who blindly support Haller see in him at this stage (debut season over with).
    £42M should at least get you effort, and the basic rule for any footballer struggling for form is Effort.
    Contrary to what many think, I don’t think Haller is struggling for form as he hasn’t even tried to find it yet!

  6. Was he actually on the pitch?

  7. Glad someone else also debunks this “Haller’s great up top in a two” myth Hugh. If so we should have signed the other guy! He’san absolutely crap player. Total waste of money that we’ll have to take a huge loss on to shift – and it won’t be to another Prem team. No one will want him. No effort, a useless passenger today and dreadful body language. I can’t stand him. Much worse than Andy Carroll. I’d swap him for Joelinton who at least tries. You see guys like Patrick Bamford grabbing their chance in the Prem and we’ve wasted 45 mill on Haller, heartbreaking. Hope Antonio gets fit soon but in the meantime let’s see what Benrahama can do. He can’t be any worse.

  8. The big difference between Antonio and Haller is quite obvious.
    Whenever the ball is in the opposition’s end Michail will charge the ball down and keep the defence under pressure. Haller just trots around never seriously challenging for the ball.

  9. At risk of stating the obvious, Haller is a totally different style of forward to Antonio. He needs time to realise his talent and to develop confidence. He was given hardly any supply against Liverpool and was generally isolated. I don’t see it as lack of effort or desire on his part but respect dieererent perspectives. But this talk of how many chances a player (or manager) gets is inconsistent. What of Masuaku? He is a very poor defender and holds onto the ball way too long. He has been given numerous chances and just to remind us of his vulnerability he gifts Liverpool an equaliser last evening. Yet he gets a good rating. Yarmalenko? What is it about his contribution that made him better than Haller? They were warming up Fredericks before Liverpool scored a second. Fredericks? Really? Surely Moyes knows he can’t have Fredericks and Masuaku on the paddock at the same time. Disastrous. And how many chances has he had to show what he can do? Por old Carlton Cole went for long periods without scoring, but he was gafforded,time and trust. And even Antonio has been through periods where he looked lazy, unfit and disinterested. So let someone support this guy to get back to where he was when he first arrived.

  10. What we want as fans is for WHU to do as well as possible – I think that Moyes has done enough to earn our trust and perhaps he can change Haller’s performances like he did with Masuaku’s (and yes I do think that he was just a bit naive with the penalty as Saleh has a history of diving)
    So if we can do well with Haller that is great and if we do well without Haller that is also fine (e.g. playing Yarmo centrally)
    For the owners it will just be another reminder that buying expensive marquee signings is a risky business – and we are not alone in that – Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, even Gareth Bale and on a lower scale Jordan Ibe are proof that sometimes you dont get your money back on a player

  11. I sadly have to agree Hugh – this was an opportunity to impress, not stroll about. He never looks on the pace and in transition he just walks back to half way and puts his hands on his hips. He is just not contributing – not forgiving lack of effort ever.

  12. Haller looks all the time like he doesn’t want to be here he just looks like he is sulking all the time. I would rather we play Yarmo or Bowen in the central role with Forlans play the number 10 role and start playing Benrahma all guys prepared to put some effort in.
    Come to think of it I would rather see Craig Dawson playing CF than Haller at least he would give it ago.

  13. I’m not going to disagree with any of the points raised here, although hold in mind, Haller is West Hams leading goal scorer this season……

  14. I talked with German fans when we were buying him and they were staggered by the fee. In Germany he was seen as average and lazy with a fantastic strike partner…The owners want him playing to recoup some of the fee in January. I’m certain Moyes would, like the rest of us, prefer Yarmo, and Yarmo knows it. So, from the look of him, does Haller,

    • Thanks John. I was told the same by a leading agent. Couldn’t believe the fee and said Eintracht Frankfurt couldn’t either

      • I feel that it is fair to criticise Haller for his performance and for his lack of effort

        However it is not fair to criticise him for his transfer fee – he is not the one responsible for that. I was trying to think of a good parallel in my earlier post and have now come up with it – Christian Benteke. When Palace paid 30 million for him some West Ham fans were saying that we should have bought him – now it looks like we dodged a bullet. Palace will never get back 30 million for him – so maybe we have to resign ourselves to the fact that we will never get back 45 million for Haller

  15. What a difference Yarmolenko made. Suddenly we had energy and endeavour. He has height, strength and character. Could he move into a central role. I never want to see Haller on the pitch again – he adds nothing and seemingly doesn’t want to get his boots scuffed by tackling anyone.

  16. Lets see how he operates against worse opposition than top 8 sides, maybe a flat track bully could be his role for us ?

  17. moyes trying to put a square peg in a round hole

    • Sadly, we are stuck with this square peg to the tune of £40 million plus. What should Moyes do? Should this square peg try to adapt himself to fit the round hole? Or should the hole try to make itself square to suit the peg? Personally I would prefer any player that wants to put the effort in for the team. It’s so frustrating to see him ambling around with no intention of getting close to the ball. He is taking money under false pretences. The minimum requirement of any footballer, at any level, is effort.

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