Seb shows he can play one-up in perfect New Year start

Seb Haller was back to his very best today and showing for the first time he is perfectly able to play in a one up role which in itself begs rather a big question which has been bothering many over recent weeks.

Why, given he produced one of his best performances in the role today , couldn’t he do it for Pellegrini ? I think we know the answer – the man was uninspiring and clearly left most of the players in a bad place.

Haller was everywhere up front and but for some ill luck might have added a couple of assists to his outstanding goal – the sixth of the season

With the new manager watching on he and the rest of the lads had to impress a bloke who is well known as a Sgt Major manager and not likely to accept anything other than 100 per cent from any of the players.

Commenting at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/january/01-january/sebastien-haller-todays-win-belongs-team: he said: “We knew today that we are all in this situation together, so this is our task [as a squad] – and the new manager knows it also.

“He can speak to us, he can make every tactic possible, but it’s up to us to give what we have to give on the pitch. Today we tried hard to make the effort together, and today we got the rewards for this work: we were lucky [enough] to score four goals.

“For myself it [the goal] was just the best thing I could have hoped for this New Year. We know that we need some points to get out of this situation, and if I can score goals like that and help the team to win [in the process], that’s the best thing I can do.”

Haller appreciates both the guidance he has received from Moyes in his first few days and the faith he has enjoyed from the supporters.

He said: “[It was] not a long conversation because we’ve not had much time to prepare, but he’s spoken to me quite a few times, just explaining to me what he wants.”

“A lot of things have happened so I won’t lie, [my first few months] were not easy, but that’s life. That’s the life of a football player, so today was nice – now I’m just happy to help the team today.

“I’m trying to get the support that we want when we represent West Ham. We are like a big family with the supporters also, so we just need to support each other and make this club bigger.”