Frank McAvennie: Pablo Fornals has a ‘New lease of life’ at West Ham
We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham United striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…
Frank McAvennie is delighted that Pablo Fornals will reportedly be in contention to return for West Ham this weekend when they play Arsenal at the London Stadium.
Fornals, 25, missed the defeat to Manchester United last week with Claret & Hugh reporting the Spain international had suffered a knock in the win over Leeds.
However, the West Ham news site claims Fornals is expected to be available to return to David Moyes’ squad in time to play Arsenal in the East End on Sunday.
Our panel of Super Fans have already shared their delight with the news and ex-West Ham striker McAvennie is happy too as he believes that the Irons missed Fornals and Jesse Lingard a lot at Old Trafford last week.
“Fornals has been a big miss. He’s got a new lease of life so it’s a shame for him to have missed out,” McAvennie exclusively told West Ham Zone.
“West Ham have been playing fluidly, not regimented. Everyone knows their place but all of a sudden, there’s a couple of injuries and they go back to playing defensive-minded.
“I’m a fan of what David Moyes has done but I think they’re better off just going for it.
“Fornals is coming back, Lingard’s coming back and [Said] Benrahma starts occasionaly, this team is going to hurt you. They’re three players there that can go and hurt you and when they’re not playing, Man United must have been like ‘oh, we can go and win that’ because, with no disrespect, [Mark] Noble’s not going to hurt them.”
Fornals has made 24 Premier League appearances this season, scoring twice and supplying three assists.
While those numbers do not exactly leap off the page, the Spanish ace has been a vital cog in Moyes’ attack with him linking up superbly well with the likes of Lingard and Michail Antonio.
According to stats by Wyscout, Fornals has completed 81 per cent of passes this season and completed 65.2 per cent of his passes into the penalty area.
He’s also found a team-mate with 40.5 per cent of his crosses despite only averaging 1.75 per 90 minutes and has 2.08 touches inside the penalty area per full league match.
Fornals is heavily involved in West Ham’s attacking play.
Having him back in the side on Sunday will be a huge boost to our chances of getting back to winning ways.
In other West Ham news, Gareth Southgate has been raving about Jesse Lingard after he was called up to England duty.