Joe Cole blown away by ‘Unbelievable’ Michail Antonio in West Ham v Dinamo
Joe Cole was blown away by Michail Antonio’s performance for West Ham in their 2-0 Europa League win over Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday.
Antonio, 31, put his red card shame from the weekend to the side in the first half as he netted his fifth goal of the season for the Hammers.
The Jamaica international capitalised on a defensive mix-up to open the scoring in Zagreb but it was also his overall game that thrilled ex-Irons star Cole.
“I love this touch. Look at this,” said former midfielder Cole on BT Sport 2 on Thursday night at half-time.
“We talk about him adding things, if that comes from someone like an Eric Cantona or Teddy Sheringham, you’re drooling.
“This is what we know he can do, he runs the channels, look at the strength. In the Croatian league, they wouldn’t have dealt with players with that kind of power.
“He’s really causing problems.”
BT Sport then showed a clip of Antonio duping the Zagreb defence by faking a touch of the ball and allowing it to run through his legs to continue the attack.
Carlton Cole said that Antonio’s trickery even sent him “for a sausage roll”.
Joe Cole added: “This next clip, I absolutely love it because he just pauses the game, look.
“Unbelievable.”
He can do it all
Antonio is the complete striker.
It’s hard to believe that he started off as a right-back and a winger but here he is, spearheading the Hammers attack in Europe and netting his fifth goal in as many games.
You’ll find it tough to find a more in-form striker in the world than the Jamaican international.
Unfortunately, he’ll be banned from Premier League action this weekend due to the silly red card he got last week against Southampton but thankfully, it will give the usually injury-prone striker a good rest after exerting himself midweek against Dinamo.
Antonio reads the game so well while he’s also an extremely good finisher, great in the air, can bamboozle defenders with his skill and pace and don’t get us started on the power he has.
Antonio is one-of-a-kind and we bet that if he was played at right-back again, he’d still be one of our best players.
In other West Ham news, violent clashes erupted in Zagreb before the game and a video has surfaced on Twitter to show that.
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