West Ham’s Ghanaian midfielder, Mohammed Kudus, has expressed his desire to play in his preferred position as a central attacking midfielder . This revelation, made in a Sky Sports interview, raises questions about how manager David Moyes will utilise the talented attacker.
Kudus wants central role
The 23-year-old has predominantly played as a winger since joining West Ham from Ajax at the beginning of the season. However, Kudus insists his natural role lies as a CAM, a position he’s occupied throughout his career. He even mentioned filling in as a striker on occasion. Despite playing out of position, Kudus has still managed a respectable 12 goals and 4 assists in 39 appearances across all competitions. His scoring record from last season at Ajax, when he played a central attacking midfielder amongst other roles, is even more impressive: 11 goals in significantly fewer minutes.
Many believe Kudus could flourish if deployed in his preferred central attacking role. This could unlock a new level of performance for both the player and the team. So far, manager David Moyes has only started Kudus in a central role once.
West Ham fans are eager to see Kudus unleashed in his natural position. His statistics suggest he can offer even more offensively if given the opportunity. The key question remains: will Moyes adapt his tactics to accommodate Kudus’ preference and potentially unlock the player’s full potential?
Sadly, I doubt it
You’re right to doubt it, Simon, because the answer is “No”.
Moyes prefers his ‘flair’ players on the wings because, as my Leverkusen analysis demonstrates, we don’t play football through the middle.
He would prefer to stifle the middle of the park with blockers and players who cannot pass forward or be progressive, but pass back, so we can channel it down, where? You guessed it… the wings.
It’s absolutely ridiculous, and how this guy is still in a job is beyond me.
We should be setting up a system and buying players that are suited to that system, not trying to shoehorn whomever we can get into a position they don’t want to play!!! FFS!
Again, not rocket science.
Play Paqueta as an 8. Kudus as a 10 (meaning two of our three midfielders are attack minded, but work hard to win the ball back, and can then actually do something with it when they do (unlike Soucek). Play Alvarez as a 6 – so we have ONE central defensive midfielder, not two. Play Emerson as a 7 (as he’s like Masuaku 2.0 – bad as a left back, but decent going forward) on the left wing (so he can combine with Paqueta in the middle) and Bowen as our 11.
Buy two new left backs, and two new right backs, and two new central defenders, and two new strikers, who are built to play up front on their own!
All with a new man in the dug out who listens and watches and understands why everyone got into football in the first place. To play football, score goals and have fun!!
Rant over.