WHZ View: Xande Silva impresses on Aris debut but West Ham attacker has plenty of work to do
Xande Silva blew West Ham fans away when he first arrived in East London back in 2018 in a deal worth up to £3.1million from Vitoria Guimaraes.
Just 11 days after his move, he was selected to make his Premier League 2 debut for West Ham’s Under-23s against Tottenham’s Under-23s.
As far as Under-23s matches go, it was quite the baptism of fire for the Portuguese winger.
Although it was a big game, that didn’t faze Silva at all as he went on to score a four-minute hat-trick to help the young Hammers win 3-1.
Goals against Manchester City’s and Arsenal’s Under-23s followed before a brace against Blackburn in Premier League 2 caught the attention of Manuel Pellegrini.
Silva earned his West Ham senior debut in December 18 when he came off the bench in a defeat to Burnley in the Premier League but since then, it’s been a tale of misery for the 23-year-old Portuguese winger.
In the summer of 2019, Silva was rushed to hospital after he suffered an obstruction to his bowel.
Due to his recovery, Silva had to wait until February 2020 to make his return to Premier League 2 football but did so convincingly with three goals in three Under-23s appearances before the coronavirus pandemic brought the season to a halt.
Desperate to ensure his career didn’t stall, West Ham took the decision to send Silva out on loan in the last transfer window and on October 5, the ex-Portugal youth international joined Greek club Aris on a season-long deal.
The 23-year-old made his debut for Aris on Sunday when he came off the bench for the final 29 minutes of a 1-0 win over Asteras Tripoli.
Stats by WyScout show that Silva did well despite his limited time on the pitch and the fact he hasn’t played much football in the last year.
He had two shots at goal – one of which hit the target – completed three of his four dribbles, had two touches inside the penalty area and even chipped in defensively by recovering possession twice.
One of the most impressive parts of Silva’s appearance was when he beat two Aris defenders to get a shot off at goal in the 64th minute.
In the image below, you can see where Silva picks up the ball, turns and notices space in between the Tripoli defenders.
He controls the ball, turns away from one defender and then motors towards the space that was highlighted above.
Next you see that the Tripoli right-back steps forward to try and beat Silva to the ball after the on-loan West Ham made a heavy touch during his dribble.
But when you’re as fast as Silva, heavy touches work well and he managed to prod the ball past the defender and continue his charge towards goal.
One of Tripoli’s centre-backs managed to move across to block Silva’s run but the Portuguese winger managed to create some space for himself just inside the penalty area and have a shot at goal.
Unfortunately, his shot was poor and straight at the goalkeeper but watching the loanee dribble the ball the way he did, beating defenders and creating a goalscoring chance is a great sight for someone who’s struggled so much in the last year and a half.
Silva did well for Aris on his debut but the ex-Vitoria attacker needs to continue shining if he wants to show West Ham that he can have a future in East London.
In other West Ham news, Ryan Fredericks could leave in January.