It is no longer just West Ham fans or fan sites which are seeing plainly the glaring flaw in Nuno Espirito Santo’s West Ham United line up. Repeated week after week, picking players out of position and expecting them to thrive was a trademark of the now departed Portuguese head coach ever since his first days in east London.
Championship and football league specialist site the72.co.uk remarks up on it, and more or less demands Scott Parker follows through with one of the substitutions he enacted at Cardiff on Wednesday night, replacing Brazilian stand in-left back Morato at half time:
“Scott Parker must consider bold Ezra Mayers decision”
The Brazilian struggled on Wednesday night though, conceding a penalty as Jack Moylan ran riot. When deciding to replace Morato at the break, Parker had two academy graduates to pick from: the more experienced Ollie Scarles, or Mayers….He went with the latter, and was rewarded for his faith.
Mayers – surely to be rewarded for a decent second half last week
Mayers offered a front-footed and aggressive approach in his defending as he looked to win the ball back and set the Hammers on their way.
The youngster made one tackle and one block, winning one ground duel and even volleying a late chance past the far post”
Sorry Ollie, for now, Mayers deserves the shirt and the starting spot. Despite no first team football since the Carabao Cup defeat of Southampton, Mayers made an immediate impact and unlike Soungoutou Magassa, didn’t look off the pace or rusty – for which Mayers deserves huge credit.
“Time” must be called on Morato’s days as a stand in left back – a future as Kilman or Mavropanos’ understudy seems more likely given that he was signed on deadline day with that in mind- and he lacks the pace and positional awareness to hold down the left back role.
Of course, alongside Mayers’ inclusion, most fans hoping to see other chan get when the team is published at 1345 tomorrow: We’ll let you know it first.
Mayers may be an answer, Scarles is not.