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Do West Ham have another striker conundrum on their hands?

By Adam Smith

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 05: Sebastien Haller of West Ham United celebrates after he scores his sides 2st goal during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Crystal Palace at London Stadium on October 05, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 05: Sebastien Haller of West Ham United celebrates after he scores his sides 2st goal during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Crystal Palace at London Stadium on October 05, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) /
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Call it the West Ham way if you will, but the West Ham Twitterverse is currently up in arms with Sebastien Haller, Albian Ajeti and getting one or both firing on the regular.

Sebastien Haller and Albian Ajeti, West Ham’s new strikers and the only center-forward currently available for the senior team. With the Hammers in a tight race to etch out a spot in the top-6, is there a crisis on hand with getting these players consistently firing on-pitch?

Sebastien Haller

More money, more problems? Maybe I’m alone in this one, but I’m not buying into the whole “Haller is struggling by himself up top” narrative being written right now in the West Ham world. He has four goals in seven matches, with a few spoiled opportunities that could have potentially seen that total rise to double what it is.

The issue with Haller is isolation, but the resolution in my mind isn’t sacrificing a midfielder to give him a striker partner. This is two-fold. Albian Ajeti is the only other striker the Hammers have at their disposal right now and he hasn’t shown much in the way of Luka Jovic talent that would inspire more offense from Haller beside him.

The other issue and more important issue might I add, is that the Irons’ midfield is where the focus needs to be. Right now there is too much outside possession and not enough play through the middle to get their marquee striker involved.

Haller is absolutely fine and is the center-forward we’ve been missing in East London for ages. He needs the ball supplied to him more consistently and the results for his own offensive stats and for the team will follow shortly after. Let’s not mess with the formation just yet.

Albian Ajeti

Player has a strong goal scoring record elsewhere in Europe and pedigree to be a successful striker. Player is brought to West Ham on a transfer. Player forgets how to play striker. Seem familiar? This is the fortune Hammers’ supporters are used to when it comes to newly signed strikers and it’s the fate that has befallen Albian Ajeti thus far for West Ham.

For Ajeti this season he’s started two Carabao Cup matches, played 90 minutes in each game, and has failed to score or assist a goal in this time frame against Newport County and Oxford United. Yes, he needs to take these two opportunities and catapult himself into the first-team selection in the Premier League, but playing with the B-team isn’t helping him grow as a striker.

At just 22-years of age, Ajeti is far from a flop or a writeoff for the Hammers. He managed to net 21 goals in 43 matches last season split between the Swiss Super League, Cup play, Europa League qualifying and Champions League qualifying. He’s scored across all of these levels and has the pure talent to do so for the Hammers.

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Without an opportunity provided to him this season, Ajeti obviously hasn’t had a chance to impact the actual first team under Manuel Pellegrini. Instead, he’s been an unused sub in seven consecutive Premier League matches. This isn’t the way to grow young talent, get a return on your investment, or light a fire under a rather unknown player. Minutes are surely ahead for Ajeti in the Prem, that’s for sure, but until then he can’t be blamed for not making an impact for the first team.