Ricardo Vaz Te is a player who will forever be in my heart, for obvious reasons. He provided us with the kind of rare, unparalleled high that can only be experienced by West Ham fans who are much more used to the lows. Without his contribution in the Play-off final and throughout the second half of the 2011/12 season, there is no question that we wouldn’t be where we are today. He is a proven Championship goalscorer, but the question is, with Andy Carroll at least a month from making a return, can Vaz fill the role of lone striker.
It is an interesting conundrum. My heart says yes but my head is much less convinced. I do, however, agree with what Vaz Te said in his transfer request in August.
“Last season I was asked to change positions for the benefit of the team even though I had just scored 24 goals.
“The main objective was to finish top 10 in the Premier League and I followed my instructions to the best of my ability as the club always comes first. As a result even though I was injured for three months no other player made more assists than me and no other winger scored more goals than me.
“In addition, since I joined this football club on 31st January 2012 no other player has scored more goals than me in all official competitions to date.”
The statistics look fairly concrete, and he makes a very good argument in his favour. In addition to this, he has already scored more goals in all competitions this season than he did in the whole of last season. This is a man in form and with a point to prove.
Whether or not the best option is to play Vaz as a lone striker in the forthcoming matches away at Swansea City and home to Aston Villa remains to be determined. I think that 4-6-0 is the way to go against Swansea to combat their passing game, with Vaz Te doing enough to keep his starting spot on the wing.
But could it be worth the gamble to start him alone up top in our next home game? I’d love to hear your opinions, let me know what you think in the comments or on twitter @myers_whu
COYI
Vaz Te’s work rate is nowhere near high enough to play a loan striker and his hold up play just isn’t good enough either. Good championship player but not premiership quality!
Up front – Yes.
Alone – No.
The sooner Allardyce ditches his lone striker mentality – if he can – the better for The Hammers. If he can’t, then the Davids should ditch him. We can’t afford his ego. If we want to play with the big boys – Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd., City – we need to play their game, not BFS’s. How about Vaz Te and Carlton Cole up front switching to VT and AC when he’s fit again.
If you think we will be playing with the big boys within the next 5 years you are simply dreaming! BFS has a contract to see us through to the OS. At that time our income stream should increase and we can hopefully free ourselves of debt. This will take a few years still. Then, and only then, we might be able to play with arsenal, Tottenham etc who live in the real world of income vs expenditure. Oh, and when we are at the OS as an established PL side, you might see the back of BFS.
Fundamentally, I agree with what’s been said so far. RVT is not a target man. Not now, not ever. Ironically, if we ever go 4-4-2 again, he could function quite adequately playing off Andy Carroll. The question is, however, do we really want to settle for “adequate” ? I think not. The hard truth is that Vaz Te is a top player in the Championship but just not quite good enough for the Prem.
Looking at the strikers we have at the moment.I think a case can be made for Vaz Te to play as a lone striker,looking at other options Sam ain’t going to be playing with two strikers Vaz Te is definitely a better option than either c.cole or petric. Give him a chance until Carroll is fit.
Vas tez has started the last two games and score 2 he is our only sriker who is scoring at the moment and he is our top scorer along with ravel so that is a no brainer for me its simple we need goals to win games so play the players who are doing that kevin nolan brings nothing to our game so he needs to be on the bench and let joe cole/Morrision play that role
Demel collins reid (c) rat
Diame noble
Downing Morrision joe cole
Vas tez
Not committed enough for me and far too inconsistent. Decent enough Championship player, but not Prem. class in afraid.
Bottom line, long term is he is not the answer, but in our current predicament he can do a job for us. Sentiment aside, he is not quite prem class but has been committed since being back in, so fair play to him.