Michael Owen appears to be questioning Bilic’s choice of Kouyate in his role as right back after he called the midfielder lazy and lacking discipline for the role.
On BT Sports LIVE TV Owen said:“Kouyate has been playing right back hasn’t he, he was poor for West Ham to give a penalty away. I don’t think he is a right back at all. I don’t think he is disciplined enough. I am not sure, I think he is a little bit lazy, he doesn’t track runners really. I think that is a mistake playing him right back. I can hear what the West Ham fans (are saying). Antonio was playing centre forward. That’s the strange thing about West Ham, if Carroll’s out they haven’t got a centre forward, all of sudden Antonio has been put up there but he has never really been a centre forward until this year. He started scoring a few goals so we will try him. For a striker to be so injury prone as Andy Carroll is to not have a really good backup attacking player is strange.”
Yes Owen,your bang on the money with that quote bruv,but as a hammer fan,i actually think he’s doing it ‘DELIBERATELY’….obviously,to get his ‘PROPER’ role back.I also heard that he ‘feels honoured’ to be selected for this role by the Slav……YEAH…RIGHT!!! (his mistakes in this position ARE VERY,VERY, BAD,& HAVE COST US,BIGG TIME.MOVE HIM BACK NOW)
If Slaven refuses to pick the one recognised right back in the squad who always seems to do a decent job in the position and better than any of his replacements what should we expect, Antonio made lots of mistakes, Kouyate makes lots of mistakes, Byram may make a few mistakes but at least he knows the position and he offers us more going forward from right back than either Antonio or Kouyate in that position. Slav seems incapable of making the big decisions on team selection, most neutrals can see these things, perhaps he doesn’t watch the replays of the games from an elevated view so he doesn’t notice the shape of the team and way the opponents bypass our defence and one midfielder in particular.