West Ham United’s hopes of a top seven finish and European glory are hanging by a thread right now.
David Moyes will have to mastermind the turnaround of a one goal deficit against Freiburg on Thursday night if we’re to keep our Europa League dream alive, whilst West Ham face an uphill battle to remain in the top seven in the Premier League what with some really difficult fixtures on the horizon.
Yesterday’s 2-2 draw with Burnley was an absolute disaster, and the awful performance of Kalvin Phillips was hugely concerning.
Moyes recently admitted that the 28-year-old still needs time to get up to speed, and whilst that is understandable, the fact that we signed him in the first place is truly baffling.
We needed someone to come in and hit the ground running, and Phillips was never going to do that. Now the loan signing of the midfielder from Manchester City could end up costing us dearly…
28-year-old could cost West Ham top seven finish and European glory
The reason for this is two-fold. Number one, he’s painfully off the pace, and I just can’t see him getting up to speed as far as his match fitness goes until mid-April at the very least, and that is if he is playing regularly!
Edson Alvarez is far and away the best defensive midfielder at the London Stadium, and he’s absolutely integral to the team. Without him, we are quite simply not the same.
So I just can’t see a way where Phillips gets into the side on a regular basis.
Secondly, the fact that Moyes signed him rather than a striker, a centre-back, a winger or even a full-back means that our squad is completely lopsided.
We’re overloaded in the central midfield department but Moyes has hardly any options in attack aside from Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Mohammed Kudus and Michail Antonio.
West Ham are weak in the full-back department and our centre-back’s struggles have been well-documented.
Had Moyes signed a top-class striker, winger, a centre-back or a full-back for West Ham in January rather than Phillips, I believe that we could have really pushed on for a top seven finish, but as things stand I think we’ll do well to end up in ninth spot.
Unfortunately, I can’t see us getting past the quarter-finals of the Europa League either, and if the 2023/24 campaign ends in misery, the signing of Kalvin Phillips will have played a big part in that.
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