West Ham: Jeremy Ngakia has earned his spot for the foreseeable future
West Ham had the most moral victory of all moral victories yesterday against Liverpool. From that match, a young star has proved his worth for the future.
If you were just a casual fan watching the Liverpool v West Ham match on Monday evening, you would have thought that Jeremy Ngakia was a well experienced right back. On the contrary, the recent Academy graduate has only played twice in the EPL.
Ngakia, a right-back by trade, was put in a spot due to injuries to face Liverpool for the second time in around a month. Consider the first match against the Red’s a warm-up one because this one time around he played lights out earning the RB slot for weeks to come. If not the for the season.
In both of his appearances, he had the task of defending the elusive Sadio Mane and on both occasions, he did remarkably well. Against the league leaders tonight he had 7 tackles, 2 aerials won and won 2 successful dribbles. The guy just flat out played Liverpool for most of the match.
At West Ham United the right-back slot has been one in question this season even with a decent amount of options. However, even with a lot of choices Ngakia has risen to the top and taken advantage of some adverse timing by the others.
The veteran and most experienced, Pablo Zabaleta has lost a step or two and the other promising right-backs (Ryan Fredericks, and Ben Johnson) have been battling the injury bug all season. In all honesty, if you would’ve placed a bet on this scenario at the beginning of the season you would’ve won big time.
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Some may call it beginners luck. Others, just a lucky streak but when you look at the history of not only West Ham but the entire EPL, running a player out on good form is not only good for confidence, it’s good for building a future star and it gives that person a chance blossom into something great. Ngakia has that chance and deserves to take it!