When Aaron Cresswell first signed from Ipswich he was a revelation at West Ham. Once connected with Liverpool, he’s now struggling to keep pace with the Premier League.
Whilst I thought the first half of West Ham vs City was largely promising, one part I thought was very worrying was the performance of Aaron Cresswell. And that was after I got over the shock of him being captain in a pretty much full-strength side. But for the most part, Cresswell did very little right and doesn’t seem to be correcting his errors.
Anyone who has played Sunday league knows the horror of coming up against players much quicker than yourself. You want to make sure you give them space because otherwise you have no chance of catching them, and the embarrassment of being left for dead is right up there on things to avoid. But you don’t expect that to happen in the Premier League.
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When Mahrez made the pass around Cresswell you could see that Walker was winning the battle. Despite having a good couple of meters in distance to make up on his opponent, Walker was in a better position and was already on the march. But if Cresswell had been more aware, he could have dealt with the issue. But he got sucked into a position in which he put no pressure on Mahrez and couldn’t cover the pass. And it’s happening all too often.
I don’t blame players for going in an out of form, or when injuries impact their play. Cresswell hasn’t been as dynamic since his pre-season injury a few years ago and quite simply he just hasn’t adjusted. He hasn’t dropped back more when defending and he constantly opens himself up to be isolated and picked apart. Until he learns to adapt, I don’t think we can really rely on him. And he certainly isn’t captaining material.
I don’t know why Masuaku wasn’t in the side at all, so I can only assume injury, but I would prefer to see him in the side. When we were discussing what we needed at the start of the transfer window, I said a left-back should have been a high priority. Without a move soon, we’re going to be struggling to cope with any serious attacking threat.