Ademipo Odubeko enhanced his claims for a first team call up with two goals in a hugely important win for the Hammers under 23s yesterday.
The 18 year old has been seen as a candidate for a squad place in the first time for some weeks and turned things around against Everton’s youngsters yesterday.
It means the Hammers after being rooted to the bottom for weeks have moved onto 20 points are now second off bottom above Saints and on equal points with Leicester City.
Mipo has been described by David Moyes as a good prospect but has had his share of injuries this term and his performance last night was outstanding as he did all he could to promote his claims for inclusion.
It’s unlikely he will be involved at this stage with crucially important games ahead of us in the bid for Euro qualification but he looks a serious candidate for the future.
His goals came from a thumping header and a powerful penalty kick and were his ninth and tenth respectively in just eight appearances for the development squad this season.
And afterwards he told www.whuf.com:” I feel like I’m in good form,I’ve missed quite a bit of this season with injury, but it’s been good to get a good run of games and get a couple of goals.
“I’m in and around the first team every single day, training with them.
“The form that they’re in… and you see players like Jesse Lingard, Declan Rice, and the stuff that they’re doing. Just watching them day in, day out, and just taking little bits from them, little bits of confidence, it’s good.
“It was good to get a couple of minutes with the first team too. That’s what you want as a kid. I’ve had lots of learning experiences, which is good.”
Well done Mipo, I hope you get a chance. I am hoping that Mr Moyes very quickly has a look at his young options – for example I would rather see Coventry, Alves or Baptiste trying to learn than watch Nobes bring broken down. Stick with Johnson in one position, Nathan Trott as number 2? We are back to shipping 2 or 3 per game – action needed!
Hope this isn’t another academy false dawn. The only way to find out is by training with the first team and getting minutes in premier matches. There are young players at other clubs who are first team regulars at 20 or 21, some even have international caps at that age, s
o now is the time to find out how good the young guy is.
If he gets a start, play to his strengths, for a big guy he is not overly physical and that’s not likely to change between now and end of season so put the ball in front of him where he can shoot, finishing he is good at.