In the summer transfer window we saw West Ham bring in former left back 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 Guy 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 or not I feel that our LB’s 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.
What do you think, leave a comment below or have your say on the blog’s twitter feed @MooreThanAClub
I’ve thought for a while that George lacks the pace necessary for the Premier League. I was hoping we would bring in Kieran Richardson to fill a gap.
Slightly off topic but it amazes me that people keep saying play Taylor at LB. He is worse defensively than George and just as slow, and we have Jarvis to supply crosses into the box so why play Taylor?
I am surprised there is no mention of Dan Potts in the article.
Not ready yet in my opinion!
im surprised we’re taking a dig at mccartney or obrien at all.
theyve been good servants so far and have done well. there will come a time when we need to strengthen at the back but i dont think that time is now.
Agreed
George McCartney won the player’s player of the season award last season. He is solid defensively. And as for attacking, he is no Leighton Baines but he gets forward well aswell. My only criticism of him is that he plays the ball long quite a lot
Both are good squad players that will serve us well as we reestablish ourselves in the prem. Get off their backs and support them.
Honest grafters which I’d rather have versus money mercenaries like Illunga! He played out if his skin to get a big contract, then went missing the rest of his west ham career!