There have been some West Ham United fans taking to social media this morning to rip into Pablo Fornals, following his ineffective showing in the 1-1 draw against Brighton on Saturday.
Fornals featured on the left-wing at the AMEX Stadium, before being replaced by Andriy Yarmolenko just short of 15 minutes from full-time.
These supporters have been critical of the 23-year-old’s performance, albeit there’s still a general consensus that he’ll need time to adapt to English football:
Twitter: @WestHam Needs to bulk up a bit more but 2nd game in still early days (@essexlewis1)
Twitter: @WestHam Average at best on Saturday but give him time to adapt and hopefully he reaches he’s potential (@RileyConn_)
Twitter: @WestHam Looks very average and slow. (@5WestHamUnited)
However, there were some who put Manuel Pellegrini’s tactics at fault for Fornal’s early struggles:
Twitter: @WestHam Should be playing centrally, Pellegrini making it harder for him (@KesterSinzu)
Twitter: @WestHam Hard to get going, when the ball is lumped over your head to 4ft 5″ Chica every 5 seconds. (@WHU_mac)
Read West Ham’s verdict
It’s incredibly harsh and reactionary to get on Fornals’ case after just two weeks and two games against the best team in the country and a tough away test against a side West Ham normally struggle against.
There’s, without a doubt, a top-class player in Fornals and the same fans ripping into him now will be the same ones heaping praise on him if, or when, he comes good as a West Ham player.
Pellegrini isn’t helping his case. The Argentine needs to use Fornals centrally if he is to get the best out of him, and hopefully we’ll see that in the coming weeks.
