West Ham United’s decision to allow Felipe Anderson to leave in the summer divided some fans.
It is safe to say selling the Brazilian back to Lazio has not done West Ham any harm.
The 28-year-old Brazilian winger left the London Stadium to link up with his former club for around £4 million, according to Tutto Mercato Web.
West Ham’s decision to ship out Anderson divided some fans
The once record £35m signing enjoyed a brilliant first season at West Ham having been brought in by Manuel Pellegrini where he hit 10 goals and laid on numerous assists.
Anderson struggled after that, though, and was not fancied by Moyes with the Scot demanding his players work their socks off for the team.
Moyes, rightly, demands that all his players do the dirty work and defensive side of the game.
Moyes clearly wasn’t a fan of Brazilian who had question marks over his workrate and application towards defensive duties
Said Benrahma is a prime example of the demands the West Ham boss puts on his attacking players.
Anderson’s attitude, workrate and application towards his defensive duties were called into question before he was shipped out – first on loan to Porto and then permanently back to Lazio.
So a statistic that emerged after the second round of Europa League matches last night will leave Moyes – and many West Ham fans – astonished.
Anderson Europa stat will leave Moyes and some Hammers fans astonished
While West Ham were making it a perfect start to life in the Europa League with a 2-0 win over Rapid Wien, Anderson was helping Lazio beat Lokomotiv Moscow by the same scoreline.
And after the second round of games it was announced that Anderson is the player who has made the most tackles in the entire competition so far.
Of the 32 teams and hundreds of players involved in the Europa League, former West Ham man Anderson has made 11 tackles according to Opta, the most in the competition so far.
Debate over whether Moyes made a mistake letting Anderson leave is pointless as Hammers go from strength-to-strength
Another former West Ham player, goalkeeper Joe Hart, also features at the top of the Europa League stats – with the Celtic ‘keeper having made the most saves (11).
There is no point asking whether Moyes made a mistake letting Anderson leave.
At the end of the day, the Scot did not fancy the winger and you would have to ask whether he would get anywhere close to West Ham’s side right now.
There is an argument to say Anderson could have proved useful as part of West Ham’s European and cup squads.
But what is done is done and both West Ham and Anderson have moved on.
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