Speaking exclusively to This is Futbol, former West Ham United striker Marlon Harewood stated his belief that Sebastien Haller will come good for the club.
Since making his £45 million move to West Ham from Eintracht Frankfurt last summer, Haller has gone on to feature 47 times for the Hammers, scoring 13 goals and providing three assists along the way.
So far this season, the £27 million-rated 26-year-old has made 10 appearances in the Premier League, over which he has scored two goals. However, he has been on the fringes as only four of these appearances have come as starts, with Michail Antonio, when fit, being preferred by David Moyes to lead the West Ham line.
And, the fact that Haller is West Ham’s record signing, combined with his lack of goals, has led to questions being raised regarding the Ivory Coast international’s future at the club.
However, Harewood, who scored 54 goals over a five-and-a-half-year spell at West Ham, claimed that he thinks Haller could still become an important part of Moyes’ side going forwards.
“It’s just a bit hard for him at the moment because it is that sort of old school hold up play with people around him and putting people in and getting in the box and stuff, but we haven’t really been playing like that because Antonio does a different type of hold up play,” Harewood told This is Futbol.
“He gets the ball, turns, and he runs a bit, gets people up the pitch and Haller is not that that type of player. But when you say stuff like, ‘Does Moyes have to change his way of playing?’ there’s a bit of both really, in the sense of helping him and helping the team. I think he will be a massive part [of] West Ham going forward.”
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Despite Haller’s lack of goals, the 26-year-old’s WhoScored statistics for West Ham are far from terrible, as, in the Premier League last season, the centre-forward took an average of 1.8 shots, as well as averaging 0.8 key passes and completing 0.8 dribbles, per game over his 32 appearances, which, in addition to his seven goals and one assist, culminated in an average WhoScored match rating of 7.08 – ranking him as West Ham’s third-best player in the league.
This season, the striker has taken an average of 1.3 shots, as well as making an average of 0.8 key passes and completing 0.8 dribbles, per game over his 10 league appearances, scoring two goals and averaging a WhoScored match rating of 6.8 – ranking him as West Ham’s joint ninth-best player in the top flight.
As such, while Haller has not hit the goal scoring heights of his days at FC Utrecht or Eintracht Frankfurt for West Ham thus far, his statistics show that there are indeed signs of promise for the centre-forward in east London, as Harewood suggests.