At the weekend Marouane Chamakh got his chance for a full debut, getting in the side ahead of Carlton Cole and fellow new boy Wellington Paulista for the game in which we drew 1-1 with Queens Park Rangers. So after getting his chance did he really take it or was it a bit of a disappointment?
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Chamakh was on the pitch for about an hour before being taken off for Carlton Cole who was involved in our goal, and that in itself shows that he could have done more on his debut to show the talent which had got him a move to Arsenal from Bordeaux in the first place. He was a man with a lot to prove, not only to us and Arsenal, but the whole of England after being mocked by pretty much everybody for eighteen months or so.
Watching from the stands in a game which we dominated more than any game in the past couple of years, yet finding ourselves down at half time I couldn’t help but feel that it was all set up for Chamakh to prove all of his doubters wrong and be the man to equalise and maybe even put us into the lead. However I didn’t see what I wanted from Chamakh and if I’m painfully honest despite the fact that it was only his first game if I was the manager of West Ham it would be a fair while until Chamakh started in the claret and blue of West Ham again.
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It was not the fact that he did not look like a good player, because you could see straight away that he is a very good player and he has a great touch, with the Arsenal influence coming through in his interplay with players such as Mohamed Diame and Joe Cole. He also did fairly well in terms of winning aerial battles from any long balls producing some good knock downs and flicks.
However in my opinion a striker has to be able to combine the interplay with the end product and he failed to do this, when given a free header inside of the six yard box he just cushioned it towards Julio Cesar and in a game where there was so many crosses he only really threatened the QPR goal once, and the fact that this was in Jarvis’ best game to date in terms of his distribution he really should have been able to get a goal.
Along with this I didn’t see any passion from a man who you would think would be desperate to prove himself, if a ball was more than a couple of yards away from him he was very uninterested, whenever he missed when I looked at him he didn’t seem too bothered and when the opposition were on the ball he didn’t really make any effort to regain possession unless the ball was being played in and around his vicinity and this is the main reason why I wouldn’t play him for a while as I feel that the most important thing to see from a player is the passion to play, it doesn’t even have to be the passion for the team that Joe Cole and Mark Noble have shown, but just the passion for the game that players such as that Mohamed Diame and Andy Carroll show and I didn’t think Chamakh showed passion on any level.
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Overall I would say that Chamakh had a very average full debut, he looked fairly good in any play in the middle of the field, but when it got down to the game changing moments he just wasn’t good enough in my opinion and his lack of finishing or passion means that he has a way to go until he gets my plaudits. I hope that he changes my mind as I really thought that he would be able to thrive in the claret and blue but judging by his debut I may have overestimated him.
I think you’ve been very harsh on him he won most things that was asked of him but like most of our other strikers he had no one around him to combine with Nolan was te closet to him yet was still over 10 yards away so I can’t see how you can say that cedar pulled off a good save against him his hold up play is better then Coles his awareness with what’s around him is better then Coles give the fella a chance that’s our problem we expect to much to soon and then get on their backs when they don produce it in the dirt min or touch of a game is start him next game with cole
your spot on
dont agree
I totally disagree in my opinion he was one of our best players and took his chances well even though he did not score he just met Julio cesar on form and if he would have not been subbed he would have scored eventually because we were creating those kind of chances which he is deadly at converting if you was to watch a few clips with him while he was at bordeux you would see what i mean. he will come good no worries great signing in my view anything is better than Cole given his display against arsenal which was abysmal
You must have been watching a different game to me, I though he had a very good debut
He did OK.
PS Did anybody notice against Arsenal, and all season long come to thing of it, Guy Demel can’t defend to save his life
He had a poor match against Arsenal, as did everybody, but he wasn’t the worst….and other than that match I think in most of his appearances this season he has actually been pretty impressive.
How the hell can you give him stick after 60 minutes ??????? Jesus. Were you watching the same game as me ?????
I’m not saying that he isn’t a good player because it was clear to see that he is pretty good technically, but what I’m saying and what got me was the fact that he didn’t really show enough passion in my eyes,I would have thought that he would be desperate to impress but unless he was on the ball he didn’t look that interested to me, if we were to play 2 up front then yeah give him a go, but as we are playing with a lone striker we need somebody who is going to work hard for the team as well as be a good technical player and I didn’t see that
Chamakh is an under rated player. He has a fantastic ability and needs encouragement and faith which Sam Allardyce has given him. He’s been treated very badly at Arsenal and in fact when he was in the first team regularly Chamakh did better than Olivier Giroud’s first starts for Arsenal. I am confident Chamakh will become one of West Ham’s best players and I’m looking forward to that! He already built some useful partnerships.