If someone asked you to sum up Pablo Felipe’s first few months as a West Ham United player, we would advise directing them towards the opening stages of Saturday’s London derby away at Brentford.
Keith Andrews side lead Nuno Espirito Santo’s at half-time, Malick Diouf coming in for criticism while Konstantinos Mavropanos continued his goalscoring streak in the worst-possible manner; diverting Michael Kayode’s effort into his own net.
Pre-match Nuno opted to keep the faith with Pablo despite Callum Wilson’s stoppage-time heroics last time out.
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And as the £18 million January signing broke clear, shortly before Brentford’s 15th minute opener, the West Ham United boss must have felt for a moment that his prediction was about to come true.
Pablo Felipe’s West Ham United goal drought drags on
Nuno is convinced that Pablo will start scoring soon. After reacting quickly to a Sepp van den Berg slip-up, a striker so prolific with Gil Vicente in Portugal found himself baring down in Caoimhin Kelleher’s goal.
His finish, though, was hardly befitting a man who hit ten in his final 12 Primeira Liga starts.
Under pressure from the recovering Van den Berg, Pablo scuffed the tamest of efforts as Kelleher pushed it away. Should he fail to make amends in the second half at the Gtech Community Stadium, Pablo Felipe’s barren run will reach 14 games.
“Pablo has got to do better,” former Upton Park stalwart Matthew Upson said in his co-commentary role. “I don’t think Pablo drives hard enough for me onto his right foot. If that second touch is slightly inside [he has a better chance of scoring].
“He’s got to drive a bit quicker.”
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Tony Gale summed up Pablo pretty succinctly during the 2-1 victory over Everton seven days earlier. The 22-year-old brings such a prodigious work ethic to Nuno’s frontline but he seldom looks like scoring.
Only moments after making a dog’s dinner of the chance presented to him by Van den Berg, with eleven minutes on the clock, Pablo then hassled and harried Nathan Collins, forcing a corner out of the Brentford skipper.
That is him in a nutshell, it seems.
Expect plenty of endeavour and effort. Genuine match-changing quality in the final third, though? As a glorious chance to open his West Ham account slips away, fears that Pablo will join Simone Zaza, Mido and Benni McCarthy in the Hammers’ ‘no-goal club’ are becoming harder and harder to ignore.
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