West Ham are going to be seeing more of Sebastien Haller with Michail Antonio set for a spell on the sidelines. But some fans are not happy about the Frenchman’s performances.
It wouldn’t be a season as a West Ham fan if there wasn’t a dispute between fans about a player’s ability. This season’s flavour is record signing and striker Sebastien Haller, who has spent most of the season so far on the bench. But whilst some have been calling for him to get more game time already, others don’t want him in the side at all.
A quick scroll through Twitter after the Liverpool match would show you a whole host of people who genuinely think that Haller’s performance was lazy and that we would have won the match if Antonio had played. They pointed at the lack of times the Frenchman broke the Liverpool lines or ran at the defence, and said that was a sign of his poor attitude.
Ignoring the fact that this match was against the champions and anyone would be hard-pressed to impact the match when playing as a lone striker, I don’t think we’re judging Haller on fair criteria. Haller has had a successful career as a striker so far, but since joining West Ham we’re judging him based on the fact he isn’t Marko Arnautovic or Michail Antonio. But he never claimed to be.
When he was signed we knew exactly what he was. He had shown great talent at linking attacking players, providing assists for a mobile strike partner and finishing off chances in the box both aerially and on the ground. He has never shown ability as a pacey, physical hitman trying to get behind the defence or run the channels.
So those fans shouting about how dreadful his performance is should wait, and judge him when we actually play a system that suits. What they should be angry about is the hiring process that saw him join the club, and now sees him on the bench.
Haller was signed by Pellegrini and Husillios, and there is no doubt he would have faired better under the system that they were implementing, but still it was a big risk. With the re-joining of David Moyes, he was never really going to be the star man. The board handed Pellegrini and Husillios the keys to the transfer budget without any consideration to the major transfers’ long term prospects and how the squad balance would be affected.
Signing Moyes back as manager, something which almost certainly saved the club from relegation meant that Haller was going to be out in the cold. So if that was your plan for what would happen given failure under Pellegrini, why sanction such a huge amount of money being spent on a player that didn’t fit the requirements?
Arnautovic and Antonio both have the ability to move wide or behind defenders, but Haller is more static, the fulcrum of the attack. It neither replaced the man we lost nor provided a genuine alternative to the other striker we were utilising.
Moyes’ current system, and the system our squad lends itself to, is one of counter-attacking and strong utilisation of attacking wing-backs. It doesn’t have space for two strikers often, or multiple players allowed to neglect defensive duties. So Haller is a very expensive throw of the die in reality. Someone to throw on if it’s not going well. Now we’re stuck because we have our record signing unable to play the way we want.
Once again, West Ham are paying for past mistakes in the transfer market. Sebastien Haller doesn’t fit into the side as it currently stands, and he is receiving a lot of hate for it. But it is not his fault, and he is still a quality player that could be utilised if the right moves are made. But I don’t think the club has the right transfer structure to make those kinds of long term moves.