West Ham’s season has been a struggle for the fans and the players alike. Losing at The Emirates on Saturday was the Irons’ 16th loss of the season in the Premier League, meaning that with nine games still to play they’ve already matched the number of losses amassed last year (Premierleague.com).
The Hammers, though, were rather unlikely to have lost that game to Arsenal. The Gunners were poor throughout the tie and nicked through a VAR assisted Alexandre Lacazette goal in a game in which the Hammers actually edged out the home side when it came to the xG of the tie (Understat).
A lot of what let David Moyes’ side down in the clash at The Emirates, though, was the finishing on display from their makeshift striker Michail Antonio, who was being played up front and out of position to given Sebastien Haller a partner to work with.
With that in mind, we’ve got a good idea of who could be a man to allow Antonio to go back to his favoured wing position to get the best out of him, and that man is the impressive Brazilian attacker Felipe Anderson, the Brazilian who we believe would make a good partner for Haller.
In 2020 so far, Felipe Anderson has played 90 minutes just once in the Premier League (Transfermarkt), and as far as we’re concerned he could start getting the game time he needs by shifting things around a touch, bringing Antonio into a wide area to compete with Jarrod Bowen for minutes, in turn shifting Pablo Fornals into a central area to compete with Tomas Soucek and Mark Noble.
Does Michail Antonio score enough goals?
Yes
No
Anderson has only managed one goal this season in the league, but he has the ability to do a lot better than that seeing as last season saw him contribute an impressive nine goals and four assists in the league (Transfermarkt), and that was without playing upfront alongside the talented target-man Haller.
