What it is with Lopetegui, I don’t know, it is as if he is driving this West Ham United team with the handbrake on. Clearly today Mohammed Kudus will be a big miss but – we have a natural replacement who must be desperate for a start after moving from the Championship as ‘player of the season’ to West Ham this summer.
Crysencio Summerville has looked good in his ten-minute cameos and MUST be given a start today. He has the skill and direct running to take on and beat most full backs.
Would Manchester United’s right-sided defenders prefer to face pedestrian Soler or pacy Summerville? Obvious.
In addition, the midfield cries out for surgery. Lopetegui needs to suck it up and admit that Rodriguez and Paqueta’s performances last week were below standard.
Kevin Nolan put it succinctly when speaking on TalkSport:
“They have got to find the best three in midfield. [Against Spurs] it was quite open from back to front. [Alvarez] does give you that sort of one way he can hold the ball for you, he can dictate play also and he fills it really well: So whether he partners with Rodriquez (ahh please no! MT) or whether he partners with what we would had done last year with Soucek, [he’s got to play], so yeah, decisions have got to be made.”
Let’s have a midfield that actually competes instead of gifting the ball back every minute. The front three and the back four can sort themselves out.
And regarding Summerville, Nolan was equally forthright:“Summerville coming in, he has got to prove now why fans want to see him, why they want to see him playing for West Ham. So this is his opportunity now. He has got to step up.”
If Soler appears instead of Summerville as a left-sided forward or Rodriguez starts in midfield again, I swear I’ll chuck my Hammers Mug at the screen and go chop wood in the garden instead of watching the game. Probably doing myself an injury in the meantime.
Come. On. You. Irons.
