Jamie Carragher has identified Felipe Anderson and Andriy Yarmolenko as the new signings who West Ham fans should really be excited by.
The Sky Sports pundit and Liverpool legend claimed during Sky Sports’ live coverage of the Hammers’ 4-0 thrashing at Anfield on Sunday (12 August) that the fanfare accompanying the free transfer capture of Jack Wilshere was not especially merited.
“I don’t think it’s as good as singing as people are saying”, Carragher said. “He’s still got to bring a lot more. If I was a West Ham fan I’d be more excited about the wide players than Jack Wilshere.”
Anderson and Wilshere both made their competitive debuts from the start for West Ham against Liverpool along with fellow new arrivals Lukasz Fabianski, Ryan Fredericks and Fabian Balbuena, while Yarmolenko was introduced as a second-half substitute with Issa Diop unused.
OPINION
For West Ham, this was a disappointing way to start the season but not a disastrous one. Most followers and pundits accept they were blown away by an outstanding Liverpool side who are Manchester City’s main title challengers this season. As for the Hammers new boys, none especially impressed at Anfield, although Anderson showed some promising touches and Balbuena started strongly. Wilshere was ineffective, both in an attacking midfield role early on and then when he dropped deep later on. It was not a particularly auspicious start for the former Arsenal player, who arrived to great fanfare after being snaffled up on a free transfer. Wilshere needs a big season to get his career back on track, but the early signs are that Anderson is the real star summer arrival. The one-time Brazil international is a matchwinner who should make a huge impact. In less demanding league assignments, expect him to be used in a front three alongside Marko Arnautovic and Yarmolenko, who also has the guile and pace to score plenty of goals when he gets used to the top flight.