Many West Ham fans destroy Antonio at HT v Saints

COMMENTARY

West Ham winger Michail Antonio was asked to showcase his versatility against Southampton on Thursday and it didn’t exactly go to plan, at least in the first-half. Manuel Pellegrini opted to play the 28-year-old as a right-back, a position he has played in before this season, in order to cover for the loss of Pablo Zabaleta to illness against the Saints. However it didn’t take long into the first-half of the clash with the Saints for a large section of Hammers fans to start fearing for their health due to how uncomfortable Antonio looked when being asked to defend. The 28-year-old was even robbed of the ball in the opening 10 minutes by Southampton midfielder Stuart Armstrong and was lucky not to see his side punished as a result. Based on how Antonio looked clumsy and not strong in the tackle, it was easy to see why a notable number of Hammers fans were fuming over Pellegrini trusting the player to defend. While Antonio did warrant the criticism, the Hammers did go into the break with the scoreline 0-0.

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