2 Comments

Time to give this Iron REAL game time

andrew-ayew-west-ham_3766955Let’s think a little about Andrew Ayew as the nasty cloud of post Bournemouth dust starts to settle a little.

Here’s the club’s £20 million record signing – sanctioned by the manager as part of what is a transfer window think tank collective – unable to get a start in the first team.

Now this isn’t the place to decide “WHO BOUGHT HIM” in that never ending discussion from those looking to lay blame somewhere. Pointless anyway because his record shows he has great feet, tricks and GOALS in him.

So here he is – a player on whom on whom the club spent the biggest proportion of its transfer budget – appearing as a fringe player on his rare excursions in the team after picking up injuries.

He has scored or assisted in each of his last three games. That’s not bad for a bloke who – despite the hefty transfer fee – is only getting 20 minutes per game. Slav allegedly bought him as a No 9 when we were looking for THAT STRIKER!!!!

Yet in reality he’s a No 10 or a player who can perform in either wing role in a three and despite being little game time his stats read well as they did at Swansea.

Last season he scored 12 at Swansea and the clear hope when spending the big dough was that he could equal or better that after grabbing 44  in 160 at Marseilles.

Surely it’s time for the guy to be given his chance from the start over a decent run of games – we really need to know what he’s all about.

Any other decision smacks of negligence to me.

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

2 comments on “Time to give this Iron REAL game time

  1. Difficult to argue . Especially when you look at what is going on around the team . Cresswell is so out of form, Noble is just awful , Carrol plays but Bilic drops the best crosser we have etc etc . Perhaps he could play right back !!

  2. Cressie may still be carrying the effects of his injury so I don’t want to be too hard on him he is though either very short on confidence or out of form, he should be rested for Masuaku when he is fit, we now have 4 quality right wingers and no specialist left winger, Snodgrass, Antonio, Feghouli and Ayew we need to lose at least one of them next season all of those their best position is right wing all of them can also play number 10, imho we should invest heavilly in a left winger that can help out Cressie or Masuaku with the defensive side of the job, I think the player who plays the position best is actually Fernandes or when we had him Valencia although with both of them we lose the ability to around the outside of players as they always want to cut inside. Fernandes at least holds onto the ball and makes meaningful passes. Not sure what the rest of you think but I would like to see Bilic play players in their natural positions ? In that set up Kouyate and Obiang would make up central midfield, Antonio would play right wing and be told to take all throw ins lumping them long for carroll to attack or nod on, probably I would play Lanzini at number 10 but in some games Ayew (when fit Sakho would start every match), Byram would start every game at right back, Fonte and Reid in central defence, Cressie or Masuaku at left back, then any of Ayew, Fernandes or Snodgrass on the left wing, Carroll up top and as for goalkeepers whatever you like neither of them are good enough for a first team slot although if Adrian could deal with crosses and catch the ball he is capable of being a top keeper. A lot of thought needs to go into next seasons transfers we definitely need at least one striker, a goal keeper, left winger, right back and a genuine defensive midfielder. A lot of money needs to be spent so looking at the managers position is also a pre-requisite do they think he can take us into the top 6, Everton have taken a huge step forward this season we are now not a top 7 side, add Leicester to the mix and maybe we are 8th or 9th best. A step has come in this season whereby the status quo was restored and Everton increased, based on the fact that outside of the top 6 you are in a handicap system where you will receive less points than them due to dodgy refereeing you have to be at least 10 – 15% better in the amount of goals you can score and defensively sound to avoid giving the ref’s the opportunity to award them decisions. We are neither, without Payet’s magic we have lost the x factor and only a change in management or mentality is going to allow these players to find that. Look at the Spuds, if you asked me a few seasons ago to sign Kyle Walker or Danny Rose I would have said no way, the same with numerous of their other players but Pochetino has transformed them, by working them harder than they ever worked before and having a relatively simple system of attacking and defending as a team, they rarely lose their shape and always tackle back, other than Alli they don’t have any superstars, Kane is in good form, likewise Alderweireld who is a good defender and Lloris is a decent keeper but they are nothing special compared to squads such as Barcelona, Madrid, Juve, PSG etc as a team though they have an x factor which is hard work I personally think that is what we are lacking but have the potential to achieve, we should have got Bielsa in but that ship has sailed so they should look for someone similar like maybe Tuchel from Dortmund if he moves on.

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