Chris Coleman lauds Jesse Lingard in West Ham v Chelsea
The first half between West Ham and Chelsea on Saturday evening was a drab affair but Chris Coleman took time to praise Jesse Lingard.
Players were meandering about the place at the sun-soaked London Stadium with neither side bursting out the traps to grab an early goal before Timo Werner scored just before half-time.
But Lingard showed some dangerous movements to try and spark the Irons into life before that, and speaking on Sky Sports’ live coverage of the match Coleman waxed lyrical about the Manchester United loanee.
“He’s a West Ham type of player look, plenty of enthusiasm, loads of legs and a big appetite for football,” he said.
“When he’s happy and got a smile on his face he’s a huge talent, it’s a shame really we haven’t had the West Ham fans in here to enjoy him this season.”
All on his shoulders
There was little between the sides in the first half before Werner broke the deadlock and we looked pretty toothless going forwards but Jarrod Bowen and Lingard were making some darting runs in behind the defence to try and unsettle the Chelsea defence.
On one occasion Lingard tried to stretch the defence and he eventually received the ball in a dangerous area but the ball into him was late and he was caught offside.
With Ryan Fredericks playing as an auxiliary left wing-back the lack of width appeared to cost us once more with Arthur Masuaku and Aaron Cresswell out injured still.
It looked like the Irons players were just waiting for Lingard to create something out of nothing once again.
West Ham and Chelsea came into the game level on points and the first half showed that there is little between them before Werner prodded home.
In other West Ham news, Trevor Sinclair shares what he’s heard about Tammy Abraham amid Irons transfer speculation.
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