WHZ Stats: West Ham have Said Benrahma problem they must solve
There was plenty of excitement when West Ham announced the signing of mercurial winger Said Benrahma in the summer.
The 25-year-old Algerian had just spent the last few months tearing up the Championship and many felt that it was the right time to bring Benrahma into the top flight.
However, since his arrival, Benrahma has struggled for game time and he has only started two Premier League games under David Moyes’ leadership.
Some Hammers fans have questioned why Benrahma isn’t starting week in week out after his eye-catching performances off the bench.
We have taken a look at how Benrahma’s stats compare to the wingers who have been starting ahead of him since he moved to the London Stadium, Jarrod Bowen and Pablo Fornals.
On the face of it, Fornals and Bowen have simply been more effective in front of goal.
Both wingers have played considerably more minutes than Benrahma but they have both outperformed the Algerian in terms of goals and assists.
Bowen has four goals and two assists to his name in the league this season while Fornals has two of each.
Benrahma is yet to find the back of the net but he has two assists to his name which is a decent return over his 308 top-flight minutes.
If we take a look at some key stats, provided by Wyscout, we can see that Benrahma isn’t performing as well as his teammates in other areas.
As you can see, Benrahma ranks lowest in all of these categories in which effective wingers should shine.
There is a significant difference in how successful Benrahma’s dribbling is compared to Bowen and Fornals.
The Algerian has only completed 50% of his attempted dribbles in the Premier League which isn’t good enough and worryingly lower than his teammates.
In the other categories, you can see that Benrahma isn’t significantly worse than Bowen and Fornals but the fact that he is last again doesn’t speak well to his performances.
Moyes demands wingers who can defend as well as attack and while Bowen and Fornals haven’t excelled in this area, Benrahma’s 38.9% of duels won this season is disappointing.
The fact that less than half of the actions Benrahma has attempted this season have been unsuccessful also doesn’t reflect well on the winger.
The Algerian needs to improve if he is to start games, this may sound like a simple solution but the stats prove that this is the case.
These stats help to explain why Benrahma is consistently starting on the bench and sometimes even struggling to make it onto the pitch.
He has impressed when he has played but it is largely because of his fast feet and entertaining style of play.
The stats we have looked at show that Bowen and Fornals are simply more effective than Benrahma and Moyes will always choose effectiveness over style.
In other West Ham news, the Hammers can beat Southampton if they exploit Saints defensive weakness