After a promising debut West Ham campaign for Felipe Anderson, it was seen by fans as a platform for him to push on and become the Hammers star man.
Just eight match weeks into the 2019/2020 season, signs of such an improvement for West Ham’s former record signing Felipe Anderson have only arrived in bursts, leaving the Hammers faithful frustrated with their £42 million man.
Just one goal in his last 24 Premier League games suggests that the Brazilian isn’t pulling his weight goal wise, while fellow members of West Ham’s front three (Sebastien Haller and Andriy Yarmolenko) have contributed four and three goals just this season, respectively this season.
To his credit, Anderson has chipped in with three assists so far this term, more than either of the Frenchman and Ukrainian.
Looking away from stats, though, and you just have to watch Anderson to see that he is leaving a lot to be desired. His refusal to take a man on and utilise his pace is an ever-growing grievance with the West Ham crowd. This is accompanied with confusion, as every man and his dog know that he has the ability to duel with any full back in the league.
During August’s 2-0 home win over Norwich City, Anderson produced arguably the performance of the season from any Hammer’s player thus far. He was incisive with his passing, he humiliated nearly every Norwich player on the pitch with his nutmegs, and he oozed class and confidence while doing so.
Since then, while admittedly contributing towards important goals and showing flashes of brilliance, his general play has lacked the same intensity that we saw during the victory over Norwich. He has reverted back to his shell and remains insistent on cutting inside instead of giving the opposition full-back a tough game.
Before West Ham signed him, Lazio often faced the same problems regarding Anderson. His wild inconsistency to go from looking world-class one game to no more than a passenger the next led to him spending a lot of his final season with the Roman club sitting on the bench.
While I’m not suggesting that Manuel Pellegrini should drop him to the bench – partly because of the lack of options to replace him – but could such a spell benefit Anderson; leading him to iron out his inconsistencies?
If West Ham have any desire of breaking into the Premier League top six this season, their supposed top players need to step up and perform on a weekly basis – and with the talent at his disposal – none more so than Felipe Anderson.