At least Crysencio Summerville is getting game time now. The Ex-Leeds United former Championship player of the season last year must’ve wondered what he’d walked into at West Ham, being sat on the bench with his head coach unwilling to use him at all for the first month of the season.
Mohammed Kudus’ five game ban has given Summerville the chance to play regularly and show us what he’s made of. Small, but by no means diminutive, the youngster has a refreshing directness to his play that gets the crowd on their feet, yet he’s struggling to make the same impact in the Premier League which he did for Leeds.
I’d suggest that West Ham need to look at the pace of their play if they wish to get the best out of the trio of Summerville, Kudus and Bowen.
Lopetegui has been stuck with a cumbersome, stodgy defence that takes an age to transition the ball from back to front, by which time most defences have set well, and doubled up on Summerville as did Wolves on Monday night.
Much like Moyes’ most successful ‘lockdown’ spell with West Ham, playing – occasionally – counter-attacking football and hitting sides on the break rather than the current one-speed ponderous, slow buildup through a plodding predictable midfield would instantly play to our forwards’ strengths and allow Summerville, Bowen and Kudus to run at defenders one-one-one.
Reinforcement of West Ham’s midfield in January with the addition of a young exciting, pacy attacking midfielder such as James McAtee or Jobe Bellingham, for instance, would complete the make over perfectly and allow Summerville to play to his full potential.
We can but hope.
Not going to get that with OAP’s we have in our midfield.