Grading West Ham’s Depth in every position

Strikers: B

The grade on this player group may be divisive, as some could say bad luck and team turmoil have derailed the strike force, while others could justifiably argue they are overrated. Regardless, West Ham’s striker situation is a bit uneasy and needs to either be settled or addressed in potentially the worst window in Premier League history.

Sebastien Haller is a great talent. He’s scored loads of goals and assists with Frankfurt prior to heading over to the Hammers but throwing him in a midfield heavy system didn’t favour him under Pellegrini, eventually contributing to his sacking. Now, playing alongside Michail Antonio, Haller looks more confident and a better contributor – it’s almost like his success is based on the players around him – who would have thought?

Speaking of Antonio, is there a player the team is more reliant on that has so many health issues? It makes sense as his hulking frame will obviously weigh him down physically over time, but the Hammers need for Antonio in the team makes them one dimensional. He’s a sparkplug starter and a sure-fire mayhem-causer off the bench, but reliability causes red flags.

The forgotten man, Albian Ajeti, has barely seen any action this season, playing just 126 minutes of Prem action. He hasn’t got a fair shake at making it but he’s only 23-years-old, so there is no need to write him off. With Bowen able to play striker but needed on the right, Ajeti could be held onto as not much money would be raised from a sale. Give him a chance to run the channels and I think we’d all like the end product.

As mentioned Bowen is an option at striker as he’s played there for Hull in the past. However, any depth options should fall to recalled Jordan Hugill or Xande Silva and Oladapo Afolayan of the U23s, as well as former Manchester United forward Mipo Odubeko who is tearing it up in the youth system. There is reason to like the team depth but reason to be concerned about the strength at striker overall, too.