Broadcaster Faye Carruthers has recently discussed the possibility of a partnership involving Jesse Lingard and Michail Antonio at West Ham.
Carruthers appeared as a guest on the latest episode of the Totally Football Show podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Premier League. One topic of discussion was West Ham’s recent win over Aston Villa. Carruthers talked about Lingard and Antonio and she believes that a ‘nice partnership’ may just be developing between both the players.
Davies Moyes’ men picked up a 3-1 win over Dean Smith’s Villa recently. Tomas Soucek had opened the scoring for West Ham before Lingard scored to make it 2-0. Late in the game, Ollie Watkins pulled one back for Villa but it only proved to be a consolation as Lingard made it 3-1 (as per ESPN).
Can Lingard and Antonio develop a good partnership?
Yes
No
Antonio had also featured in the game and Carruthers believes that if Antonio stays fit, he could form a reliable partnership with the Manchester United loanee.
She said: “I thought there’s a development there of a really nice partnership between him and Antonio, if Antonio stays fit.
“For the opening chance that Antonio had, he chose to go for it himself, even though Jesse Lingard was free on the left and he chose to go it alone, realised that didn’t work and then brought him in for the other two goals.
“I really think that’s a potential nice partnership and actually, the dink over for that cross when Lingard was completely unmarked on the left-hand side and chested it down and on his weaker foot, as well – I’m really pleased for him.”
TIF Thoughts on Carruthers’ comments on Lingard-Antonio partnership…
While Antonio didn’t score against Villa, he got the assists for both of Lingard’s goals in the second half.
Lingard has started his West Ham career extremely well, while Antonio has also been among the goals in the current campaign for the Hammers. He has directly contributed to eight goals this season in the Premier League (as per WhoScored).
Said Benrahma hasn’t exactly made a huge impact so far and Pablo Fornals has scored only two goals in the league. So the onus might be on Lingard to contribute and if he does, the relationship with Antonio might just kick on.