West Ham’s lack of Championship experience has been highlighted by former striker Sam Parkin, who believes the Hammers are missing the know-how required to negotiate difficult away matches.
Speaking on the Sky Sports EFL Show, Parkin questioned whether West Ham have enough experienced organisers in the team, with The72 highlighting his concerns about a midfield containing Arne Engels, Mohamadou Kanté and Divine Mukasa.
Let’s be absolutely clear about this. West Ham lack leaders, full stop. I believe this is partly a consequence of Graham Potter’s clear-out, something highlighted in Michail Antonio’s book, with the former manager appearing to move on some of the bigger personalities at the club. And let’s be fair, they’ve not really been replaced.
West Ham Have Two Different Problems
However, I think there are two separate issues here. One is leadership, while the other is tactical nous, and I’m not convinced they’re necessarily solved by the same player.
If West Ham are looking for somebody prepared to scrap, they really need look no further than Edson Álvarez. The Mexican is already at the club despite having been frozen out under Nuno Espírito Santo, and he would immediately bring some bite to the midfield.
From a tactical point of view, I suspect Scott Parker will persevere with Soungoutou Magassa in defensive midfield once he gets back up to full fitness. Parker has already brought him back into the picture, and a specialist defensive midfielder could make a significant difference to how West Ham cope when games become physical or untidy.
Koppen Must Consider Leadership In January
Longer term, though, there is little doubt West Ham should be looking at the personalities they’re recruiting, not simply the technical ability of individual players.
When Director of Player Recruitment Nils Koppen assesses potential January signings, I’d like to think he’ll be considering whether they can organise those around them, take responsibility and provide leadership when things aren’t going well.
Parkin makes a fair point about Championship experience, but for me the issue goes deeper than knowing the division. West Ham have lost too many big personalities without replacing them, and that’s something Parker and Koppen will eventually have to address.
He has had a succession of drab manager with no spine themselves. Namely Potter and Nuno. He should be one of the first names on the team sheet
It’s fairly obvious where the problem is.
Here’s the ‘ spine ‘ of a recent pragmatic team, playing counter attack football.
Fabianski, Zouma, Rice, Antonio.
Here’s the current ‘ spine ‘
Mads, Kilman, Engels, Taty trying to play possession football, but are not very adept at moving the ball intricately at pace, with non existing movement off of the ball to compound the issue.
Couple that with woeful defending, voilà. There to be ” got at “.
we can’t have alvarez at the club he must go and never play for us again.
How can you have him playing, leading midfield after he has tried to engineer moves, refused to play for the club and failed at all his loans.
He is also far too slow for English football.
He is done at West Ham.
Didn’t do too bad at the WC.if we showed an interest in a player of that calibre, we’d be moaning if we didn’t sign him..hes showed hes a quality player he deserves a chance.cant do much worse than some of the muppets weve got