Andoni Iraola is fully aware of the challenge which awaits his backline when West Ham United host AFC Bournemouth; Crysencio Summerville, Jarrod Bowen and Taty Castellanos all expected to start once again.
This is, after all, a battle between two sides in the bottom five when it comes to conceding goals. At the risk of jinxing things, expect entertainment and plenty of chances at the London Stadium.
Should one of those chances fall the way of Crysencio Summerville, well, on recent evidence, there will only be one result.
Is this just a purple patch or is Summerville really one of the best forwards in the Premier League? 🤔
Looking for a seventh goal in eight West Ham United appearances, Summerville is in ‘almost unstoppable’ nick right now.
So as impressive as Alex Jimenez has been as Iraola’s rampaging right-back – the Cherries signed him permanently from AC Milan this week to the tune of £17 million – arguably their most in-form player could also prove to be Bournemouth’s greatest weakness in tonight’s 5.30 kick-off.
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Alex Jimenez may be Crysencio Summerville’s dream opponent as West Ham United host Bournemouth
Jimenez is as attacking as they come, often operating more as a winger than as a full-back.
But while Iraola believes the Spain Under-21 international is improving with regards to his defensive output, Jimenez’s barnstorming runs down the flank should leave plenty of gaps for Summerville to exploit in transition.
“He has quality on the ball, he has speed, especially offensively. I think he’s a big threat, but I think he’s improving in the other side of the game,” Iraola told the Daily Echo.
“Defensively, I think he’s dealing better with difficult wingers. I think he’s physically sustaining much better the games, finishing stronger the games.”
Jimenez sits in the 94th percentile for ‘progressive carries’, and is often positioned very high, very aggressively when Bournemouth have the ball. However, he is also prone to losing the ball in dangerous areas, while his defensive duel win rate stands at only 24 per cent, per Data MB.
Take, for instance, December’s 4-1 thumping by Brentford.
The Bees ripped Bournemouth apart on the counter that day. For one Igor Thiago early chance, Jimenez was actually positioned inside the opposition penalty area as a long ball up the field set the striker away. He wasn’t even in the picture for Brentford’s second goal. And, for the third, it was a poor Jimenez cross which ignited the breakaway completed by Kevin Schade.
Schade’s hat-trick goal late on is one, in particular, Summerville should be looking to replicate. Jimenez was standing right by the forward, and barely reacted as Schade darted goalside and headed home from point-blank range.
Nuno Espirito Santo should follow Brentford’s lead against Andoni Iraola
The Bournemouth Echo handed Jimenez a rating of just 4/10, noting that he ‘struggled to deal with the movement of Brentford’s frontline’. On the other hand, it was a typically bullish piece of attacking play at the other which helped force a consolation goal.
Therein lies the risk and the reward of playing a full-back so attack-minded. As brilliant as Jimenez is to watch as a neutral, and presumably as a Bournemouth fan most of the time, there will inevitably be games like that which fully expose his defensive weaknesses.
No Todibo or Magassa? 🤔
What is your take on who should START for West Ham today?
Nuno Espirito Santo, a coach who turned Wolves and Nottingham Forest into two of the most effective counter-attacking teams around, will surely have noted that while encouraging the free-scoring Summerville to make himself available for rapid-fire transitions.
“He’s doing a good job. He’s in a good moment,” Nuno said shortly after Summerville emulated Jesse Lingard by scoring in five successive Hammers games. “Forward players need this confidence, and he has that one-v-one [ability]. When he can use it in [left-sided attacking] spaces, he’s almost unstoppable.
“He’s in a good moment. Summerville is full of confidence. Everything that he does seems to go well, so we have to take advantage of it.”
‘Take advantage’ is something the Hammers will be determined to do against a Bournemouth side who score plenty [43 in the Premier League] but also concede a lot [45].
If Summerville is the ‘talisman’ and posterboy for West Ham’s revival, then Alex Jimenez epitomises the strengths and the weaknesses of Iraola’s sometimes free-flowing but defensively-flawed Bournemouth.
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