January spells crisis mode at West Ham. Cash flow isn’t looking good, without selling there is no opportunity to bring players in and yet the Hammers have front line striker Antonio out and now stand-in striker Jarrod Bowen out for six to eight weeks with. foot fracture. Time to cast a new eye around those within the squad and to squeeze more out of existing resources whilst the club try and work out how to finance two new acquisitions.
I read today that ‘West Ham need a new Marko Arnautovic’ who was a converted winger – turned- striker by David Moyes.
Am I the only one to look at the squad list and wonder if ignored teen Luis Guilherme might be just such a talent waiting for the right moment to burst forth? His cameo on Sunday against Liverpool went completely unnoticed amongst the carnage but the youngster had one shot hit the post in his ten minutes at the end, which lightened up the gloom for a few of us die-hard Hammers watchers.
West Ham’s own words when Guilherme was signed: :”A technically gifted attacking player blessed with searing pace and acceleration, elusive dribbling skills and a superb left foot, Luis Guilherme is a hugely promising talent who was identified as a priority target by Technical Director Tim Steidten and Head Coach Julen Lopetegui”
Pace is a wonderful asset at any age and Guilherme from his pre-West Ham exploits clearly has an eye and a reputation for goal. Time for The Hammers in this moment of crisis to take a fresh look around the dressing room and maybe consider the raw pace and exceptional talent of Guilherme could serve them better in the second half of the season? Absolutely.
JLo’s mind doesn’t stretch that far.
No chance he’s likely too start him.
Hasn’t taken notice of any other suggestions.
But will Loppy play him?..probably not he’s too young he is going to stick with the old boys club… hope I’m wrong we could definitely use some pace and youthful exuberance COYI
Scour the lower leagues for a proper centre forward willing to run and trying to score and assist for 100 minutes. Must be several out there dying to get a chance. Even if it is only for 5 months. Age no barrier. Wages an incidental incentive.
It can be done.
COYI
If this was me playing football manager I’d 100% just be sticking him in the team, maybe he is not good enough yet, but he’s not going to get any better if he doesn’t play.. can only improve, he’s young, has potential and if he sticks with us could be a really valuable, home grown to club player when he’s 21, right now though I’m hoping we get to see Kudus on the right and Summerville on the left. Not convinced JLo will do it though, will be paqueta on the right and Kudus on the left with soucek cam because he’s actually the most baffling guy in football
Converting wingers into strikers seems to have been a particular skill Moyes had. He was successful with Arnautovic, Antonio and Bowen. If he had signed a new contract maybe Kudus would now be leading the line, who knows?
“Guilherme from his pre-West Ham exploits clearly has an eye and a reputation for goal.”
So in the 23/24 season he made 18 appearances and scored 1 goal. 677mins played.
In the 22/23 season he made 28 appearances and scored 0 goals. 732mins played.
21/22 he made 2 appearances, 0 goals. 103mins played.
He’s also made 4 appearances for the Brazil U17s and scored twice and played 6 times for the U20s and scored 0.
I mean, he’s obviously a talented youngster and all but if you want to see him given a chance then just say that. There’s no need to make patently false statements about his “eye and reputation for goal” from before he joined us.
The lad was a first team starter before coming to West Ham . Since he arrived at the club he hasn’t been given any sort of decent chance to show if he’s up to playing in the premier league he can’t be any worse than Fullkrug so he should be given the opportunity to show how good he really is or how bad we won’t know without him getting the chance to start a game
I’ve been asking since the beginning about this lad…if he played a bit more I might agree , but there us no way he will put him in the starting 11 like that after hardly using him …frustrated me thus one because I think he woukd be decent if they give him a few games…loopy would probably put a keeper up top before using him
The game against Liverpool was possibly the best example of players played out of position,I don’t think the team nor the fans had a clue what was going on. For a moment I thought Jlo had a master plan…Lol. We have paid good money for Guilherme so why don’t we play him? Because he is too young? What a load of bull. Stick players where they should be and we might get some results together. The current injuries might just be a blessing. 🤞
Trouble is Loppy tends to put square pegs in round holes. So we are more likely to see Soucek as a makeshift striker than see Loppy start Guilherme. I just don’t trust Loppy to do anything logical, it always comes across more as ….random!!
That is the genius of his tactics! Unpredictable, so it takes the opponents 10 minutes to figure out that no one on WHU knows what they are doing, and they then eviscerate us.
Just need to convince the league to shorten games to 10 minutes…
Nail on the head