As most of you already know, West Ham have gone without a decent striker for the majority of the season.
With Andy Carroll being injured we had to cope with Modibo Maiga up front and sometimes even managed to play the formation 6-4-0. This angered many of the West Ham United fans as we couldn’t score goals and we were putting up with defeats that were unneeded and could have been turned into victories if we had a decent striker.
This is why for the new season (2014/2015) we need David Gold and David Sullivan to reach into their back pockets and give the club some real cash to spend. This could also be helped with a new, fresh manager that makes wise decisions and that will bring in an effective forward.
West Ham is supposed to be challenging for Europe and there is literally no way were going to be able to accomplish this without a confident striker and a new gaffer. In my personal opinion, Michael Laudrup would be the perfect manager.
Look what he did at Swansea City. He brought in Wilfired Bony and seen him bag himself 20+ goals this season! Just think where we could have finished had we had a confident, artistic striker like Bony.
We also need to look at the forwards in the lower leagues such as Ross McCormack and Jordan Rhodes. Ross McCormack has scored a massive total of 28 goals this season in the Championship and he’s only 27-years-old. Twenty eight goals is an impressive total in any league and this needs to be taken into consideration when looking at striker that would be worth their money and would have a low wage budget.
The same goes for Jordan Rhodes. He’s scored an equally impressive 25 goals this season. These two strikers would be an insane addition to the West Ham squad and I’m sure they would be well in our transfer range.
Andy Carroll has been out for most of the season with an injury but, since his return, he hasn’t shown his worth of £15m. The fans have certainly noticed this as well, as there have been occasions, such as Man City away, where some fans booed him as he got substituted off the field.
Fair enough, he has only really just recovered from a serious injury, but there is no excuse when you have cost the club a whopping £15million. With that kind of money we could have singed the likes of Wilfired Bony or Ross McCormack, and I’m pretty sure they would have made a much bigger impact on our season.
Carroll only bagged himself two goals in 12 appearances since returning from injury. This figure is very disappointing and just proves that he is not worth the money we invested in him.
But he does have a few positives to his style of play, as I’m sure most of you are aware that the team like to play through him, whether it be a free kick, goal kick or a hoof up field. The players tend to aim for AC and expect him to win the aerial duel, bring the ball down to the floor, keep possession and hold up the play for the wide men to make their runs.
This, unfortunately, hasn’t been the case this season. We’ve tried to aim for the big man but he either wins the aerial duel and loses it as soon as it reaches the floor, or he loses the aerial battle in the first place and appeals for a foul.
This has happened one too many times this season and we desperately need to invest in a more artistic, confident type of attacker.
