Modibo Maiga is rumoured to be on his way out of West Ham United and I, contrary to others, believe letting him go would be a big mistake.
Sam Allardyce bought him in the summer for around £5 million and a club like us doesn’t spend that sort of money without believing the guy has the ability or at least the potential to be a first team player.
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He has the best scoring record in the side this season, despite barely playing, with 4 goals in 16 games in all competitions. Most of those appearances have been from the bench so when you factor that in, his scoring record is even more impressive. He started 2 games in the Capital One Cup and scored 2 goals, even when you think about the lower quality of the opposition it is still a guy taking his chance to impress and then being snubbed for Premier League fixtures.
The main problem for him has been the lack of diversity in Big Sam’s management style. Unlike Andy Carroll and Carlton Cole, Maiga does not have the physical stature to be an effective lone striker. As far as I can remember, cup games aside, the only opportunity he has been given to play up front alongside someone else was in the Everton game when Carlton Cole was wrongly sent off a couple of minutes after Maiga came on. In the League Cup games, the side was set up in a more attacking manner with a front 3 and the team would be playing a proper 4-3-3 as opposed to the 4-5-1 that Big Sam likes to call a 4-3-3, he was great in cup games and scored in both league cup appearances.
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My main frustration is the fact that Big Sam was the one who bought him and why would you buy a guy like him if you were only ever going to play 1 up front. He struck up a 30 goal partnership with his strike partner Ideye Brown in 2010-11, scoring 15 of the 30 goals so the attention he gained was whilst playing with a strike partner, not a lone striker.
It is a similar situation to when Big Sam bought Sam Baldock and Nicky Maynard only to now have neither at the club. My question is: what is the point of buying strikers like that if you have absolutely no plans to use them properly? Ricardo Vaz Te is forced to play in midfield, we have just signed Wellington Paulista who is a similar type player to Maiga and Vaz Te as in he is a striker/winger. Will we ever use him in his favoured position under Big Sam? Or will he be another one of our strikers with great potential who is wasted by the lack of diversity in Big Sam’s tactics as a manager?
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I believe that if given the chance to play up front with a striker partner he would start to prove his worth in our squad. Unfortunately when your manager buys in striker after striker after striker it will certainly damage your confidence and I think the best move for his career would be a move away as he won’t get a look in when Big Sam’s favourite Andy Carroll comes back to full fitness however letting Maiga go would be a big shame in my opinion.
Be sure to pop over to Hugh’s blog: http://theboleynblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/why-we-should-not-let-modibo-maiga-go/
Big Fat Sam has no clue….you nailed it when you mentioned 2 up front , how can you scout a player who scored a hat full of goals in France and witnessed the guy applying his trade with a strike partner, then purchase him knowingly that you will not use him as you will not be playing 2 up front in your tactics (if u can call them tactics) this is a complete and utter waste of the Davids hard earned cash…we have injuries to Carrol and he still wont play Cole and Maiga to make up for the loss…Marseille even want to take Maiga back to France, this is an obvious compliment to Maiga , the same has been bestowed upon him by Alan Pardew to replace Demba Ba, can you not see a pattern here. The boy Maiga is a top player when given the chance to play (with a strike partner) ….Why oh why buy him if you are not going to play him ….I’m sorry but BFS is a clueless manager, tactically rubbish and inept at making positive tactical changes within a match.
I quote…..
“The main problem for him has been the lack of diversity in Big Sam’s management style”
The above quote from your article correctly implies that BFS does not no what hes doing …and is the reason for our current slump in the League,(and cups) even my 1 yr old kid would play with 2 up front …
BFS has now bought the Brazilian who has scored lots of goals for his parent club and he has been playing up front whilst doing this….when we finally see him i guarantee that he will be playing out wide and not in his rightful position. You’ll see for yourself . I hope im wrong.
I do not dislike Sam as a manager or person , he has managed to stabilize our club after the Avram business and I for one am grateful, he also got us to where we belong in the P.L at the 1st time of asking after we got relegated…Which is not an easy task . , but now we are back in the big time he has shown everyone that he is out of his depth, he needs to grow some Cahooners (balls) in this league and quit the negative tactics..
I heard that he refused to pursue the signature of Michu (because of Nolans position no doubt) , well this sums it up to me, he prefers players who have Played in the P.L …the joke is if he had bought Michu I can bet my life that he would have kept him on the bench just like he is with Maiga…and people would have assumed that hes no good either…what Sam is doing to players belief and moral is beyond me the quicker he is gone the better.
Now i just need you all to sing this song with me …ready…
Paulo Dicanoooooo Paulo Dicaniooooooo
Absolutely agree with you Hugh the lad must be given a chance.
Playing one bigun up front and having no one playing off them makes no sense in my eyes.
Especially as Nolan gone off the boil in the goal scoring front.
Agree totally. Why buy him then not play him? Maybe BFS only saw him on video or just read his stats and now realises that he should of gone to actually see him play b4 buying him!!
Gotta agree lads Maiga has not been given a chance BFS has been quoted as saying MM needs to bed in and not be rushed and that he is one for the future. We do have a choice of strikers and i look forward to seeing Paulista and seeing Carrol back.
Maiga suffers being played out wide.
YES HUGH !
Useless player did you see at the spuds
I could go either way with this guy. The one thing I wouldn’t want to do is sell him at a big loss at this point.