Charlie Austin v Simone Zaza: Was This Really The Difference Between The Teams?
The result at the weekend is one that will not go away quickly. There are many painful lessons West Ham have to learn from a comprehensive home defeat. They’ve made it public that they were chasing a more clinical striker, did they let one slip through?
West Ham & Charlie Austin
This is an ongoing thing, and you can be sure Austin wanted that goal yesterday. The Southampton striker was publicly blasted by chairman David Sullivan a having “no ligaments” in his knee when it came to a medical, hence we would not be moving for him. What happened after was a rebuttal, and a £4m move to Southampton.
Sullivan then went on to say that is they’d known he’d been available at such a low price they would have gone for him. Talk about moving once the horse had bolted. They actively encouraged the horse to go!
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Austin may not be a glamorous name, and he has had his injury issues in the past. It is one of the things that has held him back from moving up to a top team. His finishing and ability to change a game is certainly not in question.
The Game
During Southampton v West Ham he was a huge part of anything good Southampton did and what he did he made sure he was effective in. He only had 25 touches but grabbed a goal and set up Tadic’s with a lovely pass. Consequently, that was also the same number of touches Zaza had…
Zaza tried to assist twice and score 3 times. No dice. Austin tried one for each and goal both times. Clinical. #WHUFC @SaintsMarching_ pic.twitter.com/YkkRUT59Zs
— Green St. Hammers (@GreenStHammers) September 26, 2016
As you can see from my earlier tweet, the Southampton man was far more clinical with his play. The Italian was getting back to be involved more but not in the areas we wanted him. He also probably should have scored when the ball fell to him in the box for the second half, but I do think we should be creating more opportunities if we played the correct way for him.
Would Switching Them Have Changed The Game?
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He’s working hard and I don’t think there was anyone putting in a better shift yesterday. He could have been more clinical yes, but that will only come with proper service. Austin is used to the Premier League and it’s troubles, Zaza will have to grow into it fast if he wants to prove he is worth the outlay to keep him.
Austin’s goal, the opener in yesterday’s game, was merely a catalyst to the downfall of West Ham. Had he not scored then it was only a matter of time. The difference was NOT in the front men, being two goals up doesn’t seem to help us at the moment anyway. Organisation behind them didn’t help, and we can’t afford to keep making the same mistakes.