ExWHUemployee thinks that David Moyes needs to consider dropping Argentinian Manuel Lanzini from the team once again.
The 28-year-old has predominantly been used as a substitute during league games this year, only starting two times before managing to get himself into the starting eleven against Sheffield United on Monday night in place of summer signing Said Benrahma.
And speaking on The West Ham Way podcast, ExWHUemployee says that whilst he understood the need to change things up a bit from a tactical standpoint, Lanzini just doesn’t bring that much to the table and needs to be back out of the side when they come to face Tottenham Hotspur this weekend:
“I think what he wanted to happen, Moyes, was passing interchanges of the three of Bowen, Lanzini and Lingard.
“They would swap round and go to the left, to the right, so that the centre backs and the defensive midfielders didn’t necessarily know which one they were picking up because they were moving around so much, so I definitely understand the tactics behind bringing Lanzini in.
“Unfortunately, Lanzini just isn’t the player he used to be. And that’s injury-related ever since he got that injury, which, at the time I was reporting could be career-ending.
“I just don’t think he’s the same player now unfortunately. I always say ‘don’t change a winning team’. He did alright, I thought he played okay, but he is the one player I would consider dropping from that team.”
Should Manuel Lanzini be getting more minutes for West Ham this season?
No, he's not good enough
Yes, he's a good player
TIF Thoughts on ExWHUEmployee’s comments on Manuel Lanzini and his place at West Ham United…
ExWHUemployee is right to suggest that Lanzini hasn’t offered much this season, and the numbers back it up. Whether it’s his goals and assist numbers compared to previous years, which has been affected by his lack of playing time, or his WhoScored rating which is currently ranking 20th in the team, it appears as if they wouldn’t miss him if he were to drop back to the bench.
As a recent report from insiders Claret and Hugh claims, Lanzini could even be on his way out of the club, so his recent appearance against Sheffield United could have simply been him ‘being put in the shop window’ to try and garner some interest.
Although by the sounds of it, it didn’t really work if he hasn’t impressed enough to stay in the starting eleven moving forward, so who might be in the market for him could be anyone’s guess.