Speaking on the latest instalment of The West Ham Way podcast, ExWHUemployee stated how he doesn’t think David Moyes believes Said Benrahma is the finished article yet.
The former Brentford forward moved the London Stadium outfit for a £30m fee in January after initially joining on loan last summer.
After bagging an impressive 17 strikes for the Bees in 2019/20 as Thomas Frank’s side narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League, the Algeria international was confident of making a big impression in the top flight this time around.
However, David Moyes has restricted the 25-year-old to just 10 league starts in the current campaign after Benrahma found himself on the bench once again as West Ham took on Manchester United last weekend, much to the annoyance of several sections of the Hammers support, but ExWHUemployee has a theory as to why Moyes has limited his game time so much.
He said: “I think he does rate him, but I don’t think he thinks he’s the finished article yet. Every interview you ever hear from him is like how he’s got to work on his distribution, how he’s got to work on his shooting, how he’s got to work on various factors of his game, and Moyes always sort of says he’s got to work on these different things.
“I mean, I think when we came to signing him, I think it was more pursued by probably [David] Sullivan than Moyes, but Moyes did obviously sanction the deal, and then it was made permanent earlier than it would have been.
“Although, it would have been made permanent in the summer – there were the reasons to get Lingard in that they did it early, not necessarily because he rated him. But I think Moyes is probably hoping that next year he will have more of an impact but for the time being, I don’t know, he doesn’t seem to rate him as highly as he rates like Fornals, or Bowen or people like that.”
TIF Thoughts on Benrahma…
Benrahma, valued at £19.8 as per Transfermarkt, was highly sort after in the summer, with several Premier League clubs reportedly chasing his signature.
It’s hard to criticise Moyes too much after guiding the Hammers to fifth place in the top-flight standings, but his obvious lack of faith in his flair players seems to be a constant source of frustration for Hammers fans.
The capital club are within touching distance of qualifying for continental football in the following campaign, and Benrahma will surely be hoping he gets a chance to play his part in what could be a historic season for the club.