A look at the league tables – and the ‘goals scored’ column – shows West Ham in the relative comfort of second place, one point behind Saturday’s beaten opponents Swansea City and with a vastly superior goal difference, the best within the Championship.
Thirty goals in eleven games suggests the Hammers are something of a machine in front of the opposition posts. The record set by Manchester City in 2001-2 was 108 goals which, at their current rate of scoring would be shattered by Nuno’s men well before the end of May.
However, that is not to say all is well in front of goal: If anything the Irons’ strikers are the weakest link, without any of the trio standing out. There’s an argument to suggest it matters not who is accredited, providing the scoring continues, but changes are likely after last weekend.
Solomon -after some excellent performances – looks as if he needs a breather
That’s according to last night’s thefalse9.com who predict changes after notable ‘misfires’ by key players against Swansea:
“West Ham host Southampton at the London Stadium on Saturday 24 October at 3pm, with Nuno Espirito Santo expected to make two changes to the side that won 1-0 at Swansea: Valentin Castellanos starts up front and Edvin Austbo comes in on the left.”
Solomon, in particular, looks to have suffered after an energy-sapping International break and looks a shadow of the forward West Ham signed in August. Castellanos deserves a start after Pablo’s couple of near – misses but the Argentine forward also had his own opportunities to put the game beyond Swansea last weekend – which he too failed to take.
In truth, none of Pablo, Castellanos or Piroe are on fire. Nuno simply has to keep rotating until one or other of them starts to find their range and can bang in goals regularly.
The case for the change on the left hand side is more straightforward: Austbø has already shown that he has an eye for goal too, so spectators will be excited to see the Norwegian into the starting line up against Southampton.
Agree with Morty, strikers are generally confidence players, stick with one of them for 3/4 games, may take some pressure off them, and having more time on the pitch can only be a good thing. Solomons is our weak link, and this is not helping our strikers!
100%% agree.taty is probably the best but we have got to find out
I think the constant rotation of forwards is the main issue. Choose one of the three and give them five starts to bed in. You can still sub them after an hour or so if needed. Not only would this give the striker time to settle, it would allow our creative players to play to the strengths of that forward too.