This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…
Darren Bent has given an indication about why it is that Sebastien Haller has struggled so much for West Ham United in recent times, as reported by Football Insider.
What did he say?
The Frenchman is a key man for West Ham, being the main figurehead of their attack and club-record signing.
Therefore, when he is not on form it is highly detrimental for the team, as has been highlighted in recent times, with the striker having gone seven Premier League games without getting a single goal or assist.
That does also include the game against Chelsea, for which he was dropped to the bench and replaced by Michail Antonio, before coming on for 14 minutes.
Speaking to Football Insider, Bent spoke about the West Ham man’s struggles: “I think a lack of confidence, a lack of creativity – at the start of the season when they were feeding him, they were scoring goals left, right and centre.
“It’s been indifferent performances, people haven’t been creating much for him, he’s been feeding off scraps and he’s not scoring which is no surprise.
“When you’re not creating chances for somebody, as a centre-forward who’s there to score goals, he’s going to become disillusioned, become frustrated, become angry. There’s no point pointing the finger at him saying he can’t score – you’ve got to give him the opportunities.”
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Hard to argue
West Ham fans were not impressed by Haller’s performance against Wolverhampton Wanderers, feeling that he looked off the pace, though it is easy to see how the striker could be growing disillusioned.
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FFC has previously written about how the 25-year-old seemed like a man stripped of his confidence and that remains the case, as has been seen in his body language at times.
He has grown so isolated and has to feed off scraps at numerous points this season, and didn’t even take a single shot against Wolves, also failing to make any key passes.
Considering this, his dry spell is not necessarily through a fault of his own, so Manuel Pellegrini needs to do all he can to help get the most out of the marquee signing.
In other news, Pellegrini was criticised for one of the decisions he made during West Ham’s loss against Wolves.