West Ham’s owners are to blame over the Jekyll and Hyde performances of Michail Antonio as striker costs Hammers dear again.
There is no more infuriating a player than Antonio at West Ham this season.
Since rather questionably declaring that he could compete with the likes of Mo Salah and Harry Kane for the golden boot back in October, Antonio has fallen off a cliff.
West Ham are paying the price in the Premier League for Antonio’s profligacy.
He has now scored just one goal in the league this year, way back on New Year’s Day.
Indeed his only other goal in the three and a half months since was worth nothing to West Ham, coming in a 3-1 FA Cup defeat at Southampton.
The converted striker’s performances are infuriatingly inconsistent.
In the dismal defeat to Brentford last weekend, Antonio looked like he had just been plucked from the crowd and thrown on the pitch. It was one of the worst striker performances fans will have witnessed from a West Ham player.
Four days later Antonio was unplayable as he bullied the Lyon defence and helped David Moyes’s side to an epic 3-0 win.
Back in the Premier League yesterday, Antonio was poor again and missed a one-on-one to win the match. At the start of the season goals were coming easily for Antonio but the longer his drought goes on, the more he overthinks every action when he has a scoring chance.
Moyes was critical of the striker after the game and fans are losing patience too (whufc.com).
But supporters and Moyes should blame West Ham’s owners over Jekyll and Hyde Antonio as the striker costs the Hammers dear again.
Whatever way you dress it up or the club tries to spin it, the fact remains West Ham’s owners FAILED to sign players MOYES wanted in January.
That is the long and short of it.
The manager wanted certain players and strikers. And West Ham’s owners did not stump up the cash to get a deal done.
That’s despite Antonio himself admitting earlier this season that he would welcome a new striker at the club to help share the goal scoring burden.
Much of the blame for West Ham failing to make any signings in January has been laid at Moyes’s door.
But the Hammers boss is right to stick to his guns over what he wants in the transfer market.
If West Ham’s owners lack the funds and ambition to get those deals done then THEY are to blame and nobody else.
Moyes knows what he needs to keep West Ham progressing.
As frustrating as it may be watching these sublime to ridiculous Antonio displays, it is not his fault. It is the fault of the owners who failed to do their job in getting the deals Moyes wanted over the line.