Hammers flop Simone Zaza became the second highest scorer in La Liga yesterday when grabbing another goal in Valencia’s 2-1 away win at Alaves.
It took his tally to the season to nine as his team climbed into into second spot on 24 points – four behind Barcelona and four ahead of Real Madrid in third.
It means that Zaza, whose loan disaster at West Ham was cut short, is now just three strikes behind top scorer Lionel Messi in the Spanish League.
The 26 year old has claimed in the past that he didn’t settle at the Hammers for a variety of reasons but has been revitalised since moving to Spain.
He arrived at the London Stadium on a loan deal which could have led to a £25 million move but he failed to make the necessary 14 appearances required under the terms of the arrangement.
He failed to score a single goal but after being loaned out to Valencia managed six in 20 games last term before this season’s nine goal haul from 10 appearances.
Another player that whilst acknowledging his own shortcomings cited training under Bilic as one of the problems.
Agree we have seen it w many players I still think Feggo should have stayed.
But we gave goals in us, Chic has shown w service he will finish. His goal Saturday was great team linkup & a fantastic one touch outside off the boot finish. We can’t play long balls to him & Ayee playing off him could be great partnership I think secondary striker or #10 role is Ayew’s best not on the wings.
We have talent esp in attack we just need proper organising & then exciting those tactics.
Zaza plays in a front 2 & think that will work best for us. Ciro Immobile is one who has impressed me the most w Lazio who Inzahgi is doing good job.
Get it into your heads ; it wasn’t Zaza who flopped .
It looked like him.
How do you explain this, when he was with us he looked like he had his feet on the wrong way round, now he’s been such a success in Spain, it’s difficult to understand.
You’d think it’s got to be down to Bilic and not knowing the best way to use the player – the same happened with Snodgrass where he was asked which side he preferred to play on?
I wonder if either of these players were Bilic’s own choices or he had them imposed on him and didn’t want to use them sensibly. Playing Ayew and Hernandez as wingers, or Antonio as a wing-back are other examples of muddled thinking that’s hard to understand.
I was with you all the way until you made the compare with Snodgrass. Then you lost me!
UNil he appeared at West Ham Zaza had never played a one up role in his life – he’s really a ten
He was poorly used and not supported adequately while at west Ham, and no, he is not a solo up top player. That should have been obvious to anyone who is into football. Yet, he was wasted, had his confidence shot, and that was the end of it. Moved to Spain, and there he is again shining. Mow, don’t give me that bolognese that the Spanish championship / league is easier. It is not. Defenders can be very brutal and the refs let play a lot, so you get hammered week in week out. The problem was and still is the coaching staff. Could not get out of Zaza his worth. He is a “arm around the shoulder” player, and they got it in Valencia.
As others have stated, there are now too many players who have systematically underperformed at West Ham. It is obvious the problem is not the players…