Yesterday West Ham United took on London foes, Fulham, in their 4th preseason match of this 2019/20 campaign. Out of all the storylines that would’ve happened, the one that did bring joy to everyone’s hearts was least expected.
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If you were able to watch to West Ham v Fulham match, kudos to you. The club, or any other television outlet for that matter, didn’t air the preseason match and instead, they used Twitter to tweet out minute by minute updates.
Thanks to Gonzo and JP WHU TV, some of you (myself included) caught a glimpse of the action before they were told to stop filming and even in Johns’ case, getting to boot. However, I digress and get back to the point at hand. The major storyline of this match was the debuts of Haller and Fornals.
Both looked well as Haller got a few major opportunities and was always in the mix. Fornals was a part of a midfield four of he, Wilshire, Anderson, and Lanzini that looked fluid and were rotating and with each other the entire length of their match. See the highlights here.
But as mentioned above, this storyline wasn’t what everyone left talking about, it was the form and play of our Jewel, Manuel Lanzini. The only goal of the match came off of his right boot in the first half after he caught the reflection of a defender and clipped on from the underside of the bar from outside the box.
Many fans and pundits alike questioned if Lanzini would ever get back to his full potential after injury, yesterday’s match proved them all wrong. The entire midfield was lively but Lanzini looked to be constantly free and open when he would slide out to the left side and that was how he was able to be in the right place for the goal.
Manuel Lanzini was lively and all of the pitch in yesterday’s match and you could tell that West Ham United’s Jewel of old was back and we can all hope that he will be back for good and we can continue to sign from near and far, Ain’t nobody, like Lanzini, makes us happy, plays the West Ham Way!