In the summer transfer window we saw West Ham bring in former LB George McCartney after impressing on a season long loan from Sunderland. However so far this season he has started 4 games this season and has came on as a sub in a further 1, but he has not been a stand out player so far in this campaign for me, whereas Joey O’Brien who has played the other games at LB has not looked too sharp either. This leaves me asking the question are these two players Premier League quality?
Former player George McCartney signed for the Hammers again after a 3 year absence which saw him see out a lot of his Sunderland contract on the bench. When Sam Allardyce came calling when West Ham got relegated he jumped at the chance. During the course of that season he made 40 appearances for West Ham in the Championship. He was very consistent in that season for us and was one the player’s that made our defence look solid last season. However this season he has not stood out at all and I was surprised to actually find that he had played 5 games for us as I thought it was nearer to 2, which shows how much I thought he had played. He has only played for 3 clubs in his whole career which are West Ham, Sunderland and Leeds (loan). So this proves that he has pretty much played in the Premier League most of his career, with Sunderland only being in the Championship twice since the Premier League has started.
This now brings me on to Joey O’Brien our makeshift LB. Joey’s actual position is the RB role but with Demel impressing this season, has not quite made it into the team thus being played in the LB role. He has played the same amount of games as McCartney however starting 4 and and being subbed on in a further 1. This is one player that I think does not derserve to even play for us however as I think that he is useless. During one game he was absolutely rubbish with everything that went near him, going past him. This could possibly be due to a succession of injuries that occured to him all on the knee.
This leads me to conclude whether ot not I feel that our LBs are Premier League quality. In all honesty I think no. If I had to pick one over the other I would pick McCartney as I feel he is the much better player and is quite a consistent player. On the other hand you have Joey O’Brien whom I feel the club should release come the end of the season. This particular position could be one that could possibly be improved on.