With West Ham’s lack of striking power it has been normal for many to voice their opinions as to who should get the axe come summer.
Modibo Maiga has been one of these names, and for me, unfairly so. The Mali international hasn’t had any big chances to show us what he can do, however when played has shown he has got potential.
Come summer I would love to sign Andy Carroll permanently and bring Maiga from the bench. Maiga has shown in all of his starts he has finishing ability, proving so against Chelsea and Southampton earlier in the season.
How can a team of our calibre push forward with one or two decent strikers? Look at Manchester United, they have Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck.
We have a good team but what we lack is depth and that has been revealed with our recent injury problems. What we need are back-up players, players we can call upon when someone else gets injured.
We need to keep the likes of Maiga and maybe even Ricardo Vaz Te. Players like Vaz Te can offer Matthew Jarvis or Joe Cole a rest when we play weaker teams, say in the Capital One Cup etc.
The way forward is bringing in talent whilst keeping hold of it, and that’s what we must do with Maiga. For me, he is underrated and can use his pace, skill and finish to grab a deadly last minute goal when we need it.
Are there any players you want us to keep?
Ben Edkins (@benedkins12)
There is a strong rumour going round The club rate Maiga but he is extremely lazy and has a bad attitude to training. If there rumours are true then get rid of him.
It makes sense that he is not getting chances because he is not willing to earn them.
He took every chance he was given to show his ability yet still wasn’t given a proper chance. It is no surprise that he is allegedly become disillusioned with life under Big Sam. Class striker but he doesn’t fit in to our system and so never gets a chance.
Ive heard that same rumour.. but agree hes a good striker, its a dodgy one really!! Not sure! I hope we sign andy carroll, he seems like hes got a bit of a feel for the club now!! Coyi
At the moment I don’t think we really need him. Apart from his two league (and 2 cup) goals he’s been underwhelming, and if the damning rumours about him are true I don’t see why he should start above Carroll and Cole. If we couldn’t hold onto Carroll and let Maïga go for 2.5/3 million we’d have almost 20 million pounds to spend on a top class striker that hopefully could push us to the next level. We could then start incorporating the younger players such as Lee and Hall into the team to get a mix of homegrown and imported talent that very few teams have found the balance for. Then obviously we move to the OS, get a wealthy backer and buy Messi, Ronaldo and Aguero!
One thing I feel strongly about, get rid of Cole. He has had his chance over and over again.
Hes a good player just doesn’t fit into big sams style, personally i would get rid so we can use money towards somone else, getting AC’s signature is key at the moment but not at 17m hopefully 10 – 12m would be great but seeing as we are yet to find out on the transfer budget we just have to wait and see, we need to have a clear out and see what funds we can raise hopefully – carlton cole, maiga, diarra, vaz te out which will pay for AC at the right price then our budget for better players and depth
Why did Sam buy him if he don’t fit the system. Wast of money,time and effort.
Think we are fishing above his level now! And with the OS we should be aiming higher!
Get rid of fringe crap,about 4 of them,keep carrol diame,ad figoroa and Simpson for free that gives us pace with our fullbacks ,buy a couple of quality players and bring in the youth job done for next season and get behind alladyce
I’ve only seen Maiga play a couple of times & those were on TV however I thought his style of play was better suited to an attacking midfielder rather than as an out-&-out striker. Yes he does appear lazy on the ball but then so did Trevor Brooking and look what he went on to achieve (not that I’m putting MM in that class). I say keep him & see if he can be developed, if not he may make a good Jan2014 sale.
I’ve only seen Maiga play a couple of times & those were on TV however I thought his style of play was better suited to an attacking midfielder rather than as an out-&-out striker. Yes he does appear lazy on the ball but then so did Trevor Brooking and look what he went on to achieve (not that I’m putting MM in that class). I say keep him & see if he can be developed, if not he may make a good Jan 2014 sale.
I personally think we should hold onto vaz but play him as a striker like we did in the championship, he scored 7 goals in only a few games and we put him out to the wing once we got into the prem, i like carroll dont get me wrong but sam has built his team around carroll and played decent players like vaz and maiga out of position for him too, if we dont sign him we’ve spent a year building a squad around a player who was never even ours lol
You are exactly right mate. We had great goalscoring success with Vaz in a far more attacking role last year, him and CC linked up very well yet we come in to the Prem and Sam gives them no chance to prove themselves. Maiga is a top class striker just never been given a real look in because he is not a 7ft lump.
Offfload both of them, they are not up to the level we want to get to.
Great article Ben, I think Maiga can play a role in the squad going forward and it is great to be able to switch styles by bringing on Maiga for somebody like Carroll, he has also shown in the few games he’s played he can be clinical so hopefully Allardyce plays him a little bit more so he feels part of the squad.