Jamie Redknapp: Said Benrahma plays like he’s not interested in West Ham v Tottenham
Jamie Redknapp was impressed by Said Benrahma’s instinctive play when the West Ham forward scored against Tottenham on Sunday.
Benrahma, 26, scored his ninth goal of the season just before half-time as he snuck in at the back post from a corner kick.
Ex-Spurs player Redknapp was left raving about the way Benrahma fooled Antonio Conte’s defenders by acting as though he wasn’t interested prior to grabbing his goal.
“He’s so important,” said Redknapp on Sky Sports Main Event [20 March, 05:24pm] at half-time while talking about Benrahma.
“West Ham have set up with three on the edge of the box and he’s got his hands on his hips, playing like he’s not interested. He wants everyone to go to that near post and then hopefully he can drift around the back unnoticed.
“You can see Son’s with the players there, Zouma as well and [Benrahma] reacts great.
“It falls to him and I’m sure it’s one of those where they’ve worked on it.”
Superb season
Benrahma’s had his quiet patches but this season we’ve seen the Algeria international gain massive traction and really show himself to be one of the best players at the London Stadium.
His goal at Tottenham was his ninth of the season while the ex-Brentford attacker has also assisted six goals in his 38 appearances across all competitions.
Benrahma is vital to this side, especially with Michail Antonio misfiring and Jarrod Bowen being injured – but just imagine what he could do if Moyes had invested in the attack in January.
We need a new striker because while Antonio is a modern-day hero in East London, we really could do with someone better and more prolific than him up front.
Antonio still shows signs that he’s not an out-and-out striker so if you look at the senior squad for what it is, we don’t have any in there.
It’s inexcusable that this issue has been overlooked for so long and that no one is willing to go out there and do anything about it.
Benrahma’s goal contributions would no doubt be higher if he had a prolific striker to aim at every week.
In other West Ham news, the Irons want to sign this “incredible” defender with his price-tag set to be slashed by 65 per cent.
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