In case you missed it, West Ham’s want-away striker Niclas Fullkrug scored for his loan side AC Milan yesterday helping the Italian side to close the gap on rivals Inter. Stepping off the bench and apparently defying his fractured toe, Fullkrug headed the ball in from close range to win the plaudits in Milan as his side stayed just three points behind the Serie A leaders.
Scoring – glad he’s remembered how. Something he only managed three times in a West Ham shirt. A Hammers coaching fail ? Perhaps just ‘out of favour ‘in London – and seemingly injured all the time: It does seem that every player who leaves the Hammers suddenly rediscovered their touch.
Perhaps there is a chance that the German will get ‘retained’ by Milan who have an option to purchase Fullkrug at the end of the season.
The German had already hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons having had £450,000 worth of luxury watches stolen from his hotel safe.
On-loan Hammers striker Callum Marshall similarly came off the bench on his debut for Bundesliga 2 side Bochum and scored – after only seven minutes.
According to irishfa.com:
“The 21-year-old, who entered the fray with a quarter of an hour remaining, stole in at the back post to head home an equaliser in the 82nd minute to earn his side a valuable point in a thrilling 3-3 draw against promotion-chasing Darmstadt.
After the game the former Irish FA JD Academy graduate, who is on loan from West Ham United until the end of the campaign, was full of praise for the Bochum fans who created an electric atmosphere.
“The atmosphere was just unbelievable,” enthused Marshall. “I knew coming over that German fans in general were massive in backing their team and were really loud.”
Great to see Marshall grab opportunity with both hands. Whilst Fullkrug’s trajectory will inevitably be on the wane when he winds up injured any day, Marshall on the other hand has a half season to prove himself at ‘second tier’ league level before heading back to West Ham in the summer: Premier League squad member or Championship ‘starter’ though next term – who can say.
Great to see Marshall making an early impact like that. He does not stop does he. We now have 2 forwards in Pablo & Castellanos who are mobile, moving around the pitch, interchanging with each other as 9/10s (sometimes both are in the box for a cross). I think it makes for an attractive style of play, plus makes them incredibly difficult to mark while creating space for the likes of Summerville, Bowen, Soucek/Magassa… That’s my take anyhow – they bring a change in style for the whole team.
Mind you, theory is fine, then Wilson comes on for 2 minutes and puts the ball into the back of the net with minimal fuss! He really is on song.
All of that to say, encouraging for Marshall I think, because could imagine him fitting quite naturally into that kind of setup. Hope he does actually figure in future plans.
Fullkrug was injured most of the time he was with us. Obviously just as he becomes injury free we get rid of him.
Well done to both of them we need to sell Fullkrug so the more he scores and hopefully stays fit the better.