No Paqueta – no West Ham!
It truly has become a case of no Lucas Paqueta – no West Ham!
We all hailed his return to the team as the turning point in our fortunes after a run of winless games in his absence, none more so than manager Moyes who was on about his return making a difference up front at his presser for Burnley today .
No Paqueta – no West Ham
Well, sadly the truth is we saw the Brazilian at his worst so far last night in claret and blue and it was left to Mo Kudus to offer any real threat against the Germans.
When I say worst I mean it. Paqueta is a luxury player for a club like ours and I just hate the rolling over and over on the deck when he is barely touched and the fact that you never quite know what you are going to get from him over 90 minutes. When he is good he is beyond excellent but when performing like that a liability!
If he turns up the team turns up. Last night he didn’t and nor did we but that also had much to do with Moyes deciding an ultra defensive tactical formation and approach against one of the weakest teams left in the competition which we had already seen off twice.
If I need to make a choice between players I would keep at West Ham of the so called big three they would be Mo Kudus and Jarrod Bowen. At some point Paqueta will leave anyway and like Declan Rice it will be for a lot of money given he has an £85k buy-out clause. It may need two players to replace him and dare I say I hope it won’t be Moyes doing the replacing!
