Once on his way, Chicharito now looks a key player!
Such was the excitement surrounding Seb Haller’s arrival yesterday that many of us chose to forget or ignore our remaining doubts about the Hammers strike force.
In the cold light of day however, the reality is that we are one injury or suspension away from being in trouble.
Only a couple of weeks ago we were looking at Chicharito as a striker who would command little more than £10 million and who, at 31, may well of lost what he was once considered to have. Now he is being seen as a key man!
There’s also the anxiety that, for all his virtues, Michail Antonio is always seen as an emergency striker who we are now being forced to accept as a natural front man.
He’s not!
And from the start of the summer, with it being known that Perez, Carroll and Chicharito were all considered likely departures, most of us believed we would need to find at least two more.
Now it seems from the manager’s comments in China we have what we have and nobody up top will be going anywhere. That looks a cause for concern.
There is of course the ongoing discussion among fans about how much money may or may not be available to fund another signing. Twas ever thus.
But from where I’m sitting following yesterday’s investment I’d be surprised if we see anything other than a free signing or loan player arrive.
However, whether that’s right or wrong, one thing is for sure – we do need another front man and regardless of the cries that the cupboard is bare we will need to be concerned until someone arrives.
COYI
I think the attitude towards Chicarito is a little unfair. OK, in terms of overall play he may be a trifle limited, but, just as with Andy Carroll, if you can devise a method that plays to his strengths, he will get goals, because he is, to use a cliche, a “natural goalscorer”.
I think Antonio performs well upfront
I’m hoping that Chicarito being given the 9 shirt indicated a change of heart by him, otherwise what was the point? I suspect Pel has put his arm around him and told him he’ll play a bigger part now that Arnie has gone. It’s quite possible we will play 2 up front in a fair number of games and that will show him at his best. IMHO the guy just wants a bit of love and to get more game time. And we’ll need 2 more strikers if he leaves.
Balotelli seems the obvious choice especially as he’s still amazingly only 28. With a proper strikes force, we’ll be doing a lot of our defending in the opponents half. Antonio is very good with his head, but he’ll never be a striker, to a lesser extent neither was Arnie, his instinct was always to go the edge of the box, not the red zone.
I would take Costa on a free or even Sturridge on low wages as cover.
Agreed. Very disappointed we didn’t get Rondin.
It seems to me that the main difference between last season & the one coming is Arnautovic has been replaced with Haller. Last season Carroll was out for most of it. Perez played in a very small number of games. Meaning that for most of the season we played with Arnautovic plus Chicharito & Antonio as an emergency striker. So not much different except that the main striker has been upgraded (let’s face it Arnautovic wasn’t as good last season at he was the season before even before the Chinese distraction)
0 cause for concern here at all, the club is moving in the right direction. Let not give fans something to winge about – we’ve just spent £45 mill
Would you prefer the Redknapp / Allardyce method of as many job lot players as you can get for £45million?
I have seen enough from the news boss and his team to feel confident that they know what they are doing. Won’t Silva be back soon?
Please try to put your point ovf view without denigtrating those of others. The answer is no but the question is valid
Arnautovic wasn’t a striker either, Antonio would probably hit similar figures if he played a whole season as a first choice striker. Most top clubs in the Premier League play with one striker and have 1 or 2 to call on if needed. Without Kane, Spurs only had Llorente or had to use attacking midfielders like Son and Moura. Who do Arsenal use aside from Lacazette and Aubameyang?
No quality striker wants to be 3rd choice so you end up paying people like Lucas Perez 80k p/w to sit on the bench. Antonio can play if need be, Yarmolenko has played as a striker. We have goalscoring midfielders.
With what we have left over in the budget (if anything) it makes far more sense to strengthen in areas where we need better first team players rather than stocking up on 3rd and 4th choice strikers that may never play. Getting an upgrade on our full backs is far more important and a replacement for Sanchez who just looks awful. I have no concerns that we’ll score goals, my concern is not conceding so many.
I do find it strange that we seem to be worrying so much about our ability to score goals, when in fact the biggest issue we have, and did last season, was our inability to stop them going in at the other end.
Fabianski made the most saves, as far as I am aware, in the Premier league, and that is not a statistic to celebrate.
Now we have Haller, in my opinion we really should be looking closely at our defending, or lack of it
Yes I agree with all of those concerns. Looking at his record, Haller has played around thirty games in each of his last 4 seasons. That does not suggest an injury prone player, but then again West Ham have proved their claim to be known as Injuries R Us, so it is still a gamble to be facing the season with our current strike force. In past seasons when the Daves have taken such a risk ( sometimes with attack, sometimes with defence) it has gone badly wrong. An oldish proven goal scorer at a cheap price or a kid on loan is definitely needed.
It is also obvious to everybody that the defence desperately needs reinforcing. Even if we had a brilliant backup striker it is madness for a team in our position to gamble on ‘you score two we’ll score three’. We had one of the worst defences outside the bottom three last season. Nothing has changed yet. It needs to.
What is situation with Silva.
All we know that he is in hospital ill – not sure nature of the problem
Don’t forget Hugill …joking..get Xande S in the squad as cover and let him have a bit of game time if we are “comfortable “in a game bring him on for a feel.of the big stage if we can’t attract or afford a decent loan signing
Balotelli?
Agree with Dom /Paul Lewis 100%
Okay:
Before joining WHU Chicharito was one of the best PL top scorer pr min.
Last season was not in his style. It was explosive fotball, trying to pass the ball to either Mr douchebag or Antonio. It was not his kind of play.
But. Even though, the club wants to buy players who are young and up and coming, and (injury free haha) doesnt necessarily means we should get rid of the older ones who already are on contract. I for one, are not on the training pitch, but I can imagine how valuable Nobes, Zaba and Chicharito are for younger players. Yes, he has a paycheck that is….. To much. But consider. If Pelle get his play sorted with the new players. They kind of look like an south american team. And Chicharito is THE fotballer who has scored most goals for Mexico ever.
I think he can blossom in the next campaign. Because of the new players. And as a second striker he was really good for man u and real. (look at the stats). Also as a sub.
Then again, I understand him, because, he is 31, and for one year ago he could probably get a 3 year contact for a middle La Liga team in Spain. Remember he has a newbie. And it would have suited him nice if he cold have ended his carr in a spanish speaking country in europe. Or Mexico.
Anyways. I´d rather have him than Rondon, or whats his name. (in the next campaign). Lets give hime more.
Sturridge?
I just don’t think Chicharito is worth 140,000 a week.He doesn’t score goals like He used to and it’s been like that for a few seasons now.It seems like He was given an inflated salary, just like Carrol was.If we can pay Heller the salary He is getting,then the most We should pay is 80,000 to another top striker.We could get 2 good proven players for the same we are paying Chicharito.If we hold onto him for another season and He doesn’t do it for us again,we will all wish He had been sold.positive changes are being made all across the park and even if Chicharito is a crowd favorite, the bottom line is, He ain’t scoring enough goals.
We just got rid of one major disruptive influence. Why would we bring in another one to replace him?
Lost me Mooro – who are you talking about?
My comment was in reply to no.32s reference to Balotelli. When I typed it his was the last comment on show. Due to the backlog awaiting moderation, comments are often made to look random and misplaced