IT has been clear for months – in fact, ever since Graham Potter’s ‘seniors purge’ – that West Ham lacked leaders on the pitch. With Tomas Soucek injured and Edson Alvarez no longer featuring, the Hammers on occasion look rudderless and without natural leaders prepared to grit their teeth and get stuck in to this Championship campaign.
A smattering of youngsters throughout the starting eleven makes this trend more apparent with the inexperienced Ollie Scarles, Mohamadou Kanté and Lewis Orford looking in vain to their senior colleagues for a little bit of steely determination.
However, on first showing, it seems the Irons have got several of their pieces of transfer business spot on with their recruitment of ‘old hands’ Manor Solomon (27) , Joel Piroe (27) and Joel Veltman (34). All three look to have the ability to put their hands up and lead by example and help pull West Ham out of their early season wobble and have cost the Hammers virtually nothing by current standards.
Piroe is ready made for the Championship slugfest ahead
Indeed, apart from achieving the ‘nirvana’ of a goal on his debut (how many West Ham strikers can boast that accomplishment?) Piroe looks to have the right mental attitude for a Championship slugfest over the coming season.
Speaking to whufc.com the new no.9 made it clear – albeit with a bit of bravado (AKA leadership) – that Saturday’s defeat can be forgotten soon enough:
“Piroe: I’m confident we can bounce back quickly:
Of course we are frustrated, and we will reflect on the performance and how we can improve quickly,” Piroe said. “We need to make sure we don’t concede too cheaply, and we need to score more goals of course.
“When you concede from an early set-piece, then you’re chasing the game and of course they then sit back and try to counter. That makes it a horrible game, so we have to try and avoid that.
“We did have plenty of good moments, and we just have to be more ruthless.”
At 27 years old, Piroe adds a level of depth to West Ham’s attack and a fox in the box mentality, if his manager will just allow him to play there.
In addition, the forward’s body language in the Charlton game was of one prepared to put himself about a bit: Unlike Taty, he didn’t overstep the mark or get himself booked for an embarrassing dive. And someone tell Nuno, he tales penalties too.
Typo. New no10….