Sebastien Haller’s high standards are needed at West Ham

After an upsetting albeit promising performance against Manchester City by West Ham, Sebastien Haller followed up with a two-goal masterclass against Watford. Despite the strong showing the Frenchman wasn’t happy with his game and is demanding more from himself.

The only other player on West Ham that shares this ‘never-good-enough’ mentality is Mark Noble and maybe Pablo Zabaleta, two of the team’s leaders and character players. If Sebastien Haller is demanding more from himself after a strong, two-goal performance, hopefully, he can pull more out of his teammates, too.

To be exact, Haller had this to say about his Watford performance:

"“Of course, I’m pleased; especially to score the two goals that got us the win, I think today was not my best game but, finally, I scored two goals. This is the game of a striker.”“Now I just need to be involved with the team even more. I want to improve, but today I will enjoy my goals.”“It’s nice for the team to create chances too, even if we are missing a few of them. We need to improve to score more of those chances. I think this was the first step for us and now we will work to score more. That’s the only thing we can do.”“I think 3-1 was quite good. It was important to start with a win. Now it’s done and we need to just look forward.”"

This should be music to every Hammer’s ears, as Haller’s reflection on the match shows some appreciation of his goal but mostly desire to grow into a more well-rounded player. He understands that the striker’s role is sometimes to pop up on the scoresheet during an ‘off game’ but wants to be more diverse and consistent.

You wouldn’t expect anything less from a man leaving Europa League football in pursuit of a new challenge and joining a team looking to plunge into Europe themselves. It’s also great to hear that Haller wants to get his teammates more involved. We know he’s a deadly goalscorer, but his passing was exceptional in the preseason and he has more to give in that area too.

WhoScored.com also chimed in on the Man of the Match performance from Haller, showing that he was, statistically speaking, the best player in the Premier League for match week three:

After a performance like this, Haller demanding more form himself is something that should be echoed through the locker room of West Ham. Mark Noble holds himself and his team to a high standard, Zabaleta reinforces that standard, and now Haller is showing that he is going to keep the offense honest, too.