West Ham Squad Rotation Could Be Good For Struggling Star

With results pouring in for West Ham there is a reluctance to change the team, however, rotating players could inspire better individual performances.

Call it never being happy or call it being critical for the sake of improvement, but Pablo Fornals has looked shaky in West Ham’s team since Michail Antonio picked up his injury. The front three of Fornals, Antonio and Jarrod Bowen were helping to produce very positive results, where Fornals was picking up player of the month nominations for the Premier League.

With Antonio upfront, Fornals was able to slink in behind the marauding forward and get centrally in a more frequent and effective way. Now with Sebastien Haller at striker, Fornals and Bowen are expected to act more as wide forwards with the striker holding up play to invite them into the attack.

For Fornals this hasn’t worked too well. Against Fulham and Sheffield, Fornals’ WhoScored ratings have been 6.2 and 6.5 and even with his 7.19 rating accrued in his goalscoring performance against Liverpool, Fornals’s average rating of 6.63 in these three matches is lower (6.78) than his average rating from the previous six matches with Antonio up front, despite tougher opposition.

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This isn’t an indictment on Pablo Fornals or Sebastien Haller, but rather a look into the idea of every player being different and these different players working better or worse with different teammates.

The obvious switch would be to bring in Said Benrahma. His brief 18-minute appearance against Fulham saw him experience the highs and lows of Premier League football with a wonderful assist on Tomas Soucek’s goal while giving away the later saved penalty to add to a nervy game.

We have to imagine that there is a reason why West Ham spent £30m on the former Brentford winger, and we all realize he was bought (okay, loaned-to-buy) not to just sit on the bench and nibble away at small minutes here and there. With his playmaking abilities, Benrahma needs to be getting more regular minutes and that means Fornals would be sacrificed.

Rather than axing one player to make way for another, David Moyes has an opportunity to level off both players in a rotational role. When the competition dictates a more natural winger with strong delivery is needed, Benrahma plays. When a more adventurous and free-roaming attacking midfielder can be used, Fornals steps in.

Both players can be maximized in this application without sabotaging each other’s West Ham careers. Injury will eventually take hold of one or both players so they both need to be ready for regular minutes, especially with the Christmas schedule coming up.

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We need to see more of Benrahma and we need to see more from Fornals. Both players are vying for minutes in the same role but both players can flourish with squad competition and rotation on a regular basis. Moyes’ man management needs to step up to maximize his attacking options.