Since dislocating his shoulder in the 0-0 stalemate with Swansea City on 27 October the name of Ricardo Vaz Te has not featured on any team sheet for the Hammers. The question is why not?
Before the away fixture at Cardiff City on 11 January he was named in the clubs’ official website match preview as having the possibility of featuring, but he wasn’t named in the 18-man squad that travelled up to Wales for the match.
The first sighting the home fans saw of the Portuguese front man after his injury was before the second-leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final against Manchester City, when he was interviewed by the stadium announcer in the build up to the game at Upton Park
Later that evening he gave an interview to the West Ham TV crew to update both them and the fans about the rehabilitation process and when he was set for a possible comeback.
Having suffered only one defeat since the match against the Bluebirds, it has been hard for manager Sam Allardyce to change a winning team as the club have since won all their games in February – and that is a potential reason why January transfer window recruit Pablo Armero has not started or even appeared off the bench yet for the Hammers.
Vaz Te’s first league start for the club this season came in that 3-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane back in October were Allardyce employed a 4-6-0 formation.
Personally I think it’s just down to how well the team is playing at this moment in time and not anything to do with the alleged public bust up between him and Allardyce earlier this season, in which Vaz Te handed in a written transfer request on the last day of the summer transfer window because he felt he was being treated unfairly by the club, as he wasn’t a first-team regular at the time.
It seems unlikely that Vaz Te will feature anytime soon, but Big Sam will obviously want to make at least one change to his starting line-up for this weekend’s game at Everton because Andy Carroll is now available for selection following the end of his three-match ban for the somewhat harsh straight red card he received against Swansea City at the start of the month.
If the manager does decide to include Carroll in the team for Saturday, what will that mean for both Carlton Cole and Marco Borriello, who have both played one half each in recent games?
If he does decide to revert to that way of thinking, then the decision will be harsh on Cole ,as he netted the goal which turned the game around for the East Londoners against Southampton last Saturday. Us fans can only speculate until the team sheets come out of the dressing rooms at Goodison Park at the weekend, where hopefully the team will make it five wins on the bounce.
