Options in attack
West Ham once again find themselves in a situation where they are short of options in attack.
Andy Carroll is sidelined with yet another injury, Diafra Sakho has been sold, as has Andre Ayew, and Javier Hernandez is seemingly not a great fit under David Moyes right now.
Injuries, poor form and player sales has prompted Moyes to run Marko Arnautovic and Michail Antonio into the ground as makeshift center forwards, while the £9m acquisition of Jordan Hugill from Preston is seen as a low cost, low risk signing, but even with the best of intentions for the 25-year-old, it’s hard to see him establishing himself as a good-level Premier League striker.
It’s simple: West Ham need to go out an invest serious money into a striker that can guarantee 15+ goals each season. No more talk of ‘nearly’ bids for players or the owners coming out saying they tried for players well above their realistic price bracket – just go out there and bring one in.
Defensive midfield
Two years ago, we were raving about the West Ham midfield.
Cheikhou Kouyate, Mark Noble and Pedro Obiang – any combination of the two – were providing an excellent screen for the Hammers defence, but fast forward to the present day and it’s anything but.
Kouyate appears to have lost all discipline to his game, Noble simply isn’t mobile enough to execute the role on his own and Obiang, ruled out for the rest of the season due to injury, has had his fair share of dips in form.
The embarrassment that was the ‘bids’ for William Carvalho in the summer and Leander Dendoncker tell us that the club have correctly identified this as a problem position, but again, as we are all too accustomed too, the decision makers have failed to deliver.
Signing a no-nonsense powerhouse to be the midfield anchor should be a summer priority for West Ham, with the two above names mentioned likely to be on our radar again.
Some out-and-out wingers are needed
West Ham have invested heavily in recent seasons in players that are touted as wingers but are really anything but.
Andre Ayew has come and gone at the London Stadium, while Michail Antonio and Marko Antonio have been huge successes in their time at the club, but they all share one common trait – they all like to come inside from wide areas and play in central positions, exemplified by Moyes’ trust in both Antonio and Arnautovic to play as a central striker this season.
West Ham’s switch to a wing-back system has covered up the fact that the team do lack genuine width in the attacking areas.
Given that the ‘wingers’ at the club are really just inside forwards at best, the club need to look to bring in at least one if not two genuine wide players.
At times, the West Ham attack has looked slow, lethargic and narrow, and the team simply doesn’t have the guile and craft to manufacture goalscoring opportunities through the middle with any consistency.
Players who stay high and wide and can provide decent delivery from the flanks are a must-sign this summer.
Right-back recruits are a must
Pablo Zabaleta has been a fine recruit for West Ham this season, but the defender was only eyed as a stop-gap on a two-year deal.
As for Sam Byram, I’m not convinced, and neither was Slaven Bilic or now David Moyes.
West Ham are lacking a real up-and-down threat on the right-hand side of the pitch, with Zabaleta simply not having the legs to play in that way anymore.
Aaron Cresswell and Arthur Masuaku on the left are two players that get on the front foot and drive forward, looking to get the ball into the box, and West Ham need a similar player on the right.
A final answer to the goalkeeper issue
The Joe Hart experiment simply hasn’t worked out for West Ham.
On-loan from Manchester City, he was expected to reignite his career in a World Cup year but Hart has been unimpressive, forcing Moyes to go back to Adrian between the sticks, a player who has never filled us with any real confidence week after week.
The chopping and changing of goalkeepers in the last two seasons has been an issue. West Ham lack a real dependable number one and that needs to be rectified.
Finally, a new manager
Arguably, the biggest position of all that needs to be addressed in the summer is the manager.
David Moyes has done an OK job since coming in and is well on his way to securing Premier League survival, but we as West Ham fans were assured of better than battling to avoid relegation each season.
The club need to go out and recruit a high-profile manager that can attract a decent calibre of players to help the club compete in the top half of the Premier League, and David Moyes simply isn’t that man.
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