WHZ View: 7 passes, 0 aerial duels won – Anonymous Antonio v Liverpool exposes West Ham error
The failure of West Ham to bring in a striker during the transfer window looks all the more inexplicable after Michail Antonio’s poor display v Liverpool on Sunday.
After selling club-record signing Sebastien Haller early in January fans have been crying out for a replacement to cover for and indeed compete with Antonio at the top end of the pitch.
Antonio’s injury issues that have kept him out of eight Premier League game this season have been well documented and Haller did at least provide a focal point in his absence even if he failed to fire during his time at the London Stadium.
However with Monday’s midnight deadline fast approaching the chances of West Ham brining a new forward in appear slim with David Moyes admitting after Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to Liverpool that activity will likely be quiet in the remaining hours.
This is news that will draw a sharp intake of breath from Hammers fans as they get set to be disappointed once again by a West Ham board lacking in ambition.
The concern will not just be that there is no senior striking option to cover for Antonio in light of a potential injury, but also that there is the danger that the 30-year-old could become complacent with no one left to challenge him.
On the basis of the last two games this could be a real problem with Antonio producing two of his weakest performances of the season.
Against Liverpool on Sunday evening he was an anonymous figure as he touched the ball 23 times, the fewest amount of any player to start the game, and made just seven passes in his 78 minutes of action at a lowly 42.9% accuracy [WhoScored].
Now Antonio cannot be solely to blame for his lack of impact in the game given Liverpool’s dominance in possession and the failure of the West Ham midfielders to regularly feed him opportunities.
But it was a real chance for him to expose a fragile Liverpool backline that featured a midfielder and an inexperienced defender making just his fifth Premier League appearance.
There was a clear lack of pace in the Reds defence but Antonio failed to exploit this and was eventually taken off.
Per Wyscout Antonio also failed to win any of his four aerial duels, the first time he has done so this season.
This is on the back of the Palace game where he recorded his previous worst tally of the season when his one from 13 attempts scored him an 8% success rate, a marked decrease from his 33% across the season.
He had two shots against Liverpool with one hitting the target but the misplaced effort was one that you would expect Antonio to be taking or certainly troubling the goalkeeper with at the very least.
Against Palace on Tuesday it could be argued that he was unlucky after hitting the woodwork on a couple of occasions but he will need to step it up if West Ham are to launch an assault on the European places this season.
Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen are the only other players still at the club to have scored more than twice in the Premier League this season so Antonio will be shouldering a lot of the attacking burden for the rest of the current campaign.
It is only early days but at West Ham Zone we are concerned that the board’s failure to dip their hands into the pockets for a new striker could come back to bite us later down the line.
Antonio must not become complacent or the Irons could find themselves cut adrift of the top spots before we know it.
In other West Ham news, see our exclusive interview with Frank McAvennie for his verdict on the loan signing of Jesse Lingard.