Speaking recently on a match reaction video for The West Ham Way, Dave Walker slammed the performance of West Ham United attacking midfielder Manuel Lanzini against Sheffield United.
So far this season, Lanzini has found himself a bit-part player under David Moyes, starting just three Premier League fixtures, making another nine appearances from the bench.
Over these 12 games, the £12.6 million-rated 28-year-old has scored one goal and provided one assist, as well as averaging a WhoScored match rating of 6.43 – ranking him as the club’s third-worst performer in the top flight, of the players who remain at West Ham.
However, rather surprisingly, Moyes opted to start Lanzini ahead of Said Benrahma in the club’s clash with Sheffield United on Monday evening, although, after a lacklustre display over his 63 minutes on the pitch, Walker questioned Moyes’ decision to go with Lanzni from the off considering the midfielder’s poor form.
He said: “Not sure why Benrahma didn’t start [against Sheffield United] if I’m honest. I thought he should have done. I don’t know what Moyes sees in Lanzini, he must be doing something special on the training pitch because he was really my only complaint [on Monday]. I thought he was completely ineffective, yeah, not great.”
Is Lanzini's time up at West Ham?
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TIF Thoughts on Dave Walker’s comments regarding Manuel Lanzini…
As Walker states, Lanzini was rather anonymous against the Blades, with the attacking midfielder managing no shots, losing all three of his aerial duels and possession of the ball eight times, with his SofaScore match rating of 6.8 ranking him as the Hammers’ third-worst performer on the night.
As such, despite being a regular player for the Irons over his four and a half years with the club, scoring 22 goals and providing 23 assists over his 152 appearances, in our opinion, Lanzini’s time in east London could well be coming to a close.