Sebastien Haller was always going to be a ridiculously important man at West Ham regardless of what was going on around him in the Hammers’ squad. However, the Irons striker is now surely even more valuable to the club than he already was.
The Frenchman is key when it comes to scoring goals, bringing midfielders into the game and making this happens creatively, and with Albian Ajeti yet to leave his mark on this squad, the former Eintracht Frankfurt man needs to keep doing what he’s doing an avoid injury.
Ajeti is one who was brought in as the club’s second-choice striker, and whilst he may have come in after a string season at FC Basel in Switzerland, the step up is a huge one, and it’s been claimed that Manuel Pellegrini doesn’t fully trust his new man.
If this is true, and we believe it is, despite his comments to the West Ham website claiming that Pellegrini knows his qualities, then it further intensifies the importance of Haller in this squad, and that’s why Sam Inkersole included Haller as one of four players who will be crucial to Pellegrini after the international break, piece on Football.London.
We’re not saying Ajeti is useless and that the Swiss striker won’t come good, but in the short term we’ve seen Haller adapt to life at The London Stadium much quicker than his Swiss teammate, and whilst the ex-Basel man continues to adapt and prove to his new manager what he can do, the pressure is on Haller.
Obviously, if the Frenchman does suffer an injury or a suspension, it will be Ajeti who will be forced to come in and have a go at leading the line at The London Stadium, but it seems that Pellegrini is far from confident in getting the right results should it come to that, making Haller even more important than he previously was.
