Last night, I joined ten thousand fellow Hammers to brave the freezing weather to cheer on the West Ham Academy boys in the Premier League U21 Cup first leg at the Boleyn Ground under the famous lights.
Premier League class it was not, but Martin Samuelson stole the show and looked heads and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch. His tricks and turns were amazing and I can really see him having a great West Ham career in the senior team soon. Honourable mentions go to Reece Oxford, Josh Cullen and Sam Byram, all of whom played against Hull City U21’s last night.
It is was probably no surprise that the players with experience of playing in front of big crowds shonet but in general, it was a lacklustre performance from the development team.
To be fair to Hull, they stopped the West Ham youngsters playing to their game plan and the Hammers became more and more frustrated until Terry Westley made all three of his substitutions upon 65 minutes. The change paid off and on the 90th minute broke the dead-lock with a goal from Djair Parfitt-Williams. Late in injury time Martin Samuelson was denied a good penalty shout.
Not quite clear why a fullback was, nominally at least, playing on the left wing which at least we now know he is totally unsuited. Was a slightly strange set up till the subs came on and gave better balance.
Samulsun looks ready for some first team action,maybe 10-15 minutes in games we have won,or if we need to change somethings and a fresh attempt at on locking a defence
Oxford and Byram already have had chances,
It was a cold night , bitter in fact, and disappointing game to be fair , I thought Cullen had a poor game as his passing and delivery were pretty poor ,
We lacked imagination and movement in midfield which allowed hull to nullify any threat ,
Hull could in fact have had at least 3 goals , they will be no pushover at their place , let’s hope they shrug off this below par performance and show a little bit more understanding in our play , I thought last night showed westleys poor knowledge in changing things early on
When we all knew it wasn’t working , he should let Potts run the show and not interfere ,
Potts never gets the headlines , only wesley ? I just don’t rate him at all ,
Samuelson is going to be one special player, when he beefs up his 6 foot 2 frame a bit.
Here we go again,
Why does he need to look like Arnie,
He is about turning ,dribbling,movement,
He does not need to be like a beefcake for that
He needs speed training,shooting accuracy,passing accuracy,ball delivery
Learn to take free kicks ,corners,take goals without panicking
You don’t learn that at Posh or Bradford,
He has done his apprenticeship now it time for work,
Maybe when he is muscle bound like Emineke,Moses,or Song he will be returned to us to offload to some second rate team
every footballer in the modern game needs upper body strength. ask any coach. just look at Lanzini and Payet.
Samuelsen needs a large dose of it. He also needs to prove himself.
By the way Bubs it’s only growing up we’re talking about ; give him a chance he’s a kid.