West Ham’s long-awaited loan signing could be making his debut on Saturday in the away fixture against Fulham. He has had the last two weeks during the international break to work on his own fitness and to integrate fully into the Hammers’ midfield style. But Manager Lopetegui has warned that there are considerable challenges for overseas players to adapt to the pace and unique style of Premier League football.
As reported in The Standard, the rigours of Premier League football offer specific player issues, not the least the style of refereeing which is in contrast to European methods. More is allowed to pass unpunished, meaning that Carlos Soler may be in for a rough 90 minutes if he does make his debut today.
Lopetegui stated: “There is a big difference: For me, the rhythm is the biggest difference. The physical demand and the style too. I always say the same.”
“The biggest difference about the rhythm is the referees. The referees in England, maybe it’s no foul, but in Spain it’s a yellow card. This changes the game, this changes the rhythm and we have to adapt.
“I like it, I like it a lot. But it’s true that we have to adapt and for the players it’s sometimes not easy to adapt to this pace or this rhythm, this demand.”
We saw the speed of the Premier League looking a little too much for Hammers’ Argentinian free signing Guido Rodriguez’ when he made his first start- he looked slow and off the pace. Whilst Carlos Soler has had a couple of weeks training with the squad it will be important for the Spaniard to get up to speed if he is to impact games in the way we hope.
An intriguing selection beckons, I’m still hoping to see Soler in the starting line up in place of Tomas Soucek who has been slated by Czech press sources for his international form and would seem better suited to being less of the playmaker, more the impact ‘penalty box-crasher’ if needed. We’ll be publishing team news as soon as we have it before the game this afternoon.