The latest member of David Moyes West Ham team is former Moyes player Jesse Lingard. Here are three bold predictions for the new versatile player for his limited time in Claret and Blue.
First and foremost, the specifics and stipulations. Lingard joins West Ham on a six-month loan deal with no option or obligation to buy. Moyes has circled Lingard due to his versatility to play across the midfield and potentially up top too.
Lingard will play AT LEAST three positions
Naturally a central attacking midfielder, Lingard has some stiff competition when playing in the number 10 role at his new club. Currently, Said Benrahma and Pablo Fornals rotate pretty heavily between left-mid and CAM, adding fluidity to both positions.
Lingard has spent significant time at right-midfield, too. This bodes well for West Ham who only have Andriy Yarmolenko to support Jarrod Bowen at right-mid/wing. With the transfer market proving frustrating to attract a striker, Yarmolenko could be moved to striker allowing for more time on the right for Lingard.
Jesse Lingard also brings International experience to West Ham with 24 senior appearances.
As mentioned, the Hammers don’t really have a lot of options at striker right now. Michail Antonio is the starter but it is a toss-up after that with Yarmolenko and Mipo Odubeko next in line. Lingard offers an option here, albeit not a desirable one. He hasn’t had too much time alone at striker and could be better suited as a secondary striker if at all.
The most important area Lingard could factor in is at central midfield. Right now, Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek only have Mark Noble as cover. Lingard is used to a more attacking role, however, Moyes could reinvent him as a box-to-box player with responsibility on both sides of the ball.
Lastly, we have left-wing, Lingard’s most prominent position in his career. The Englishman has played a total of 103 games at left-wing and has a return of 24 goals and 29 assists across this experience. With Fornals and Benrahma rotating in and out of that position, it could prove difficult for Lingard to breakthrough here, but don’t count him out.
How many goals and assists can we expect from Lingard?
This is a difficult question to answer for a few different reasons. The most obvious real this could prove difficult is explained in the previous slide – Lingard will be playing a bunch of different positions. While this will give him many opportunities, it will also cause him to have to focus his efforts on team chemistry and positional responsibilities before all-out attacking.
More importantly, though, Lingard has played just one match in 2021, an 80 minute CAM performance in the FA Cup with no goals or assists to his name. Outside of this, he has only played in two other matches this season in the EFL Cup for a combined 99 minutes without a goal or assists either.
It is well documented that Lingard has fallen down the pecking order at his home club, but off the pitch responsibilities have also caused the Englishman to focus on family over football which always comes first.
Judging by his last full season for United, Lingard played in 40 matches for United in 2019/20, both before and after the COVID-19 shutdown to play. He managed four goals and two assists in this disjointed season, which was underwhelming in both categories.
For West Ham, the ‘play me anywhere’ strategy will likely be used as it was at Manchester United so these numbers could be similar when extrapolated down. That being said, I back Lingard to smash similar season numbers in his half-season loan in East London.
Prediction: three goals and three assists for Lingard at West Ham.
How Jesse Lingard gets on at West Ham, under his former manager David Moyes should be telling for both the player and team moving forward.
Forget Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s words wishing Lingard the best in his loan move and hoping he comes back a better player, that is complete BS. Lingard was offered a Premier League lifeline at a club as solid and good as West Ham because of his international and professional career barring the last few seasons. He is done at Manchester United and is on trial for the Hammers and every other Premier Leauge team now.
Because of this fact, I imagine Lingard will be motivated to do what his manager asks of him in order to fully take this centre-stage opportunity. He has one year left on his current deal after this season and is 28-years-old. Lingard could potentially be playing for his last ‘big’ contract of his career.
West Ham did pay a loan fee as well as the entirety of Lingard’s wages in order to take him on over Newcastle or West Brom. These good-faith negotiations could be the first step to taking Lingard permanently after this loan expires. Moyes clearly likes working with the player and whilte bringing in a 28-year-old player isn’t exactly the Red Bull model, having Premier League experience is rarely a bad thing.
Overall, I see a chip on the shoulder type player in Lingard and bringing him to the biggest club in London to prove he is still a terrific player could light a fire under him. At a bare minimum, Lingard will be expected to play on both sides of the ball and run his socks off in every match. If he does that, there is no reason to believe he won’t be a success this season and beyond, both at West Ham.