This – West Ham United coming from behind to beat Everton 2-1 in Chicago during the Premier League Summer Series – is what pre-season is all about.
A chance for some under-pressure, big-money signings to click themselves into gear. An opportunity for a manager to trial new systems, and new faces. And, of course, the moment in the calendar every fringe player has circled as they look to force their way into the first-team picture.
If Wednesday’s victory over David Moyes’ Everton is a sign of things to come, Lucas Paqueta and Niclas Fullkrug should bounce back stronger after both endured seasons they would rather forget.
Paqueta pounced on a Mark Travers blunder to cancel out Idrissa Gana Gueye’s opener at Soldier Field. Fullkrug produced a ‘ridiculous’ finish just past the hour, meanwhile, as the ex-Borussia Dortmund striker aims to silence his doubters in claret-and-blue.
The performances of a few youngsters and the odd Hammers misfit, meanwhile, should give Graham Potter the sort of selection headache he’s been craving.
Freddie Potts can make the ‘massive step up’ on the basis of this evidence; industrious and instrumental at the base of the West Ham United midfield. And, with Fullkrug currently the only senior centre-forward in the building, another lively Callum Marshall performance will not have gone unnoticed either.
Freddie Potts and Callum Marshall impress Robbie Earle as West Ham United beat Everton
Robbie Earle, on co-commentary duty for Sky Sports, spoke in glowing terms about the purposeful Potts almost from the very first minute until his departure at half-time.
“He’s got real poise, Freddie Potts. A real class act. Looks very cool in possession,” said an impressed Earle, who scored 45 Premier League goals for Wimbledon in the 1990s.
“Lovely in possession. It’s tight in the middle of the back but [Potts has] good feet, good balance, he’s aware of where the spaces are.”
Marshall may have been denied a second goal of pre-season by an early Travers save – the Northern Ireland starlet scored against Grasshopper Zurich in Switzerland a couple of weeks earlier – but the intensity and mobility he offered as a lone frontman caused David Moyes’ Everton backline no end of problems.
Marshall raced onto a poor Michael Keane backpass for his early chance, drew a foul from the £30 million centre-back later in the half, and pressed ferociously as the first line of defence.
“Great pressing from young Marshall, bringing a real enthusiasm to the frontline. The last thing Michael Keane needs!,” Earle adds, suggesting that there may be a role for the former West Brom and Huddersfield Town loanee as a back-up in Graham Potter’s squad.
“[Marshall can] force the manager’s hand. Centre-forward is a position that’s been a problem at West Ham over a number of years.”
Graham Potter hands goalscorer Lucas Paqueta a free role in Chicago
West Ham look set to sign Callum Wilson on a free transfer. But Marshall, 13 years Wilson’s junior, may be worth keeping around as a more pacy, athletic alternative.
Lucas Paqueta, meanwhile, ended the afternoon with a goal and an assist to his name. This was, though, still a mixed bag of a performance from a footballer still scratching the surface of his true potential.
Earle noticed that Paqueta appeared to be given almost a free role as a roving number ten in the first-half, before dropping into a deeper position at the break.
“It doesn’t look like he’s got any set position,” Earle spotted. “As if Graham Potter has said; ‘Go and use your footballing IQ to cause Everton problems’.”
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