One of the more far-reaching questions to arise from yesterdays’ FA Cup loss concerns West Ham’s striker duo Pablo Felipe and Taty Castellanos. Both had goals chalked off by VAR in extra time – Castellanos in particular left feeling hard done by with a borderline decision to deny him a spectacular winner.
Taty also rattled the wood work with a diving header and on another day could have scored early on from his six yard box flick which was very well saved by Leeds’ goal keeper Lucas Perri.
West Ham’s two forwards both arrived in January
Pablo has yet to get off the mark in a West Ham shirt whilst Taty at least has three goals to his name. Having had a chance to see first hand the high energy impact pressing that the two can provide , there is no doubt that they are hard working, energetic, willing workhorses. But Premier League goal scorers?
Fans will be wondering how Nuno fits Summerville, Bowen, Taty, Pablo, Wilson and Traore into his West Ham attack: Two at least will sit out the West Ham fixture and from Traore’s performance yesterday he’d perhaps be a better starting option than one or other of the January recruits.
Pablo Felipe, the more inexperienced forward, unlike Castellanos, is clearly not the finished article. As per the NYTimes, during the extra time turnaround yesterday:
“First-team coach Paco Jemez pulled forward Pablo to one side and gestured the kind of offensive runs he needs to make.”
Not sure Jemez’ words or gestures made any difference to Pablo’s involvement.
The Hammers paid something around £20 million for Pablo, which is looking like top dollar for an industrious hard working likeable young man with the touch of a footballer wearing divers lead-filled boots. The longer he plays without scoring, the more the pressure on the young forward will grow – along with the case growing for Nuno to leave him out.
Traore’s man of the match shift yesterday could well signal a change of direction as West Ham go in search of goals and victories between now and May. It’ll be intriguing to see how Nuno sends the Hammers on Friday out for the ‘next cup final’ of the run-in.
I think v wolves we need to start the same attacking and midfield players that started the 2nd half.
Bring Summerville on from the bench, later on.
It depends on Summerville’s availability.
If he plays I’d put him and Bowen BUT play Traore up front and play into the channels behind the defenders. Best form of defense is ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK
Precisely this. Now he’s apparently up to speed fitness-wise and capable of putting in a full shift defending from the front, use him centrally, alongside Taty, in place of Pablo who can be brought on when legs tire. By that time, ‘the beast’ should have beaten the defence into submission!
Pick the ones that want it most. The ones who are not saving themselves for the next game. The ones with the fire and elbows.
Those that miss out can be ready to show up from the bench. They need to prove their worth should they get the chance.
Kilman doesn’t need to trouble Nuno – he’s just not up to it.
I think we are a far better team with Taty and Pablo in it. They both close down so high up which makes us so dangerous.
We need to practice more on finding the net in training and working as a team. Sometimes a pass to a team mate is the better alternative rather than going for glory yourself. After all it is a team game, so let’s not forget that.
And fans do not dessert them like in the Leeds game, they did not deserve that because they were giving their all and had been very unlucky with posts and off side.
So let’s hear you.