Although Valencia could be injured for a while, let’s hope it isn’t too long as he now adds to the many attacking options we have in the squad. Valencia will hope to be playing in the first team before too long but what does he need to do to ensure he gets the nod ahead of Diafra Sakho, Andy Carroll and Nikica Jelavic in his favoured position?
First of all, Valencia needs to be more of a physical presence when he plays. He was pushed off of the ball far too many times last year and if he wants to be successful in the English League then he is going to need to be able to put himself about a bit more.
Our three other strikers are all very physical so Valencia should be looking to do extra work in the gym if he wants to be competitive.
Another issue I have with Enner Valencia was his lack of consistency. On his day it was evident that Enner has all the traits to be a top striker, his first touch, dribbling, pace, heading ability and his finishing were all demonstrated at parts of last season and we need to see that on a more consistent basis.
His goalscoring record needs to improve if he is going to make the starting XI.
If I was Slaven Bilic I would be giving Valencia plenty of time to prove himself because as i said he has shown that he is capable of leading the line and with our attacking players in behind him, he won’t be short of chances.
Valencia offers lightning pace that our other strikers simply don’t have and perhaps Bilic will use him in certain games and not in other depending on the opposition.
Regardless of who Slaven does choose in the line-up, he will have his reasons and the squad is strong enough to beat anyone at the moment, despite the news on Payet’s injury.
FOOTBALL THUGGERY IS KILLING THE GAME. So Payet joins the growing list of talent that is getting kicked out of the game. Payet was our main play maker and one of the main reasons why we are so high up the ladder and a quiet unaggressive lad who just gets on with his game. I would have had a few choice words to to say to Martinez about his training tactics used, but the referees now are not giving enough protection to players who are targeted, and that was another reason why we saw a boring 0-0 draw at Villa, because City also have had their main talent kicked out of the game. Anyone who comes along who is a threat to a team that doesn’t have the talent gets the treatment including our own Andy Carroll. I do not want to watch the equivalent of a boxing match come Rugby? No we want to watch & pay for the best and to have our investments protected, who we pay to come and see. The best do deserve the match officials protection, otherwise who wants to watch pumped up thugs hack the talent out of the game? Payet is lucky he doesn’t have a broken leg after James McCarthy’s vicious tackle & the block head should have been shown a straight red, and not satisfied with that Everton then take out Valencia. I mean how much are they going to let the game get dragged down by thuggery before they take action, and this is also double standards because how many West Ham players have received reds this season? Quite a few eh? James Collins lashed out in frustration at Ighalo & deservedly gets gets sent off, but how many bad tackles have we seen go unpunished? At 1-0 up & with Payet in place we were looking at getting the 2nd goal, but no, not with him going off and then followed by Valencia, well that totally changed West Ham’s impetus and embarrassingly enough we were lucky to hang onto a lousy 1 point. West Ham, when fully fit have a far more talented amount of players than Everton, so they turn the match into a fight. If you want to fight like that Everton you should turn to Rugby Union, not football. It seems that Valencia’s injuries are not as bad as Payet’s & we haven’t seen the best of him yet. Anyone who continually watches Green St, has got heart. This kid’s heart is just so big, so give him a go & let his thunderbolt shots rain into all the opposition’s goals & rip their nets off. Yes Valencia, “Stand Your Ground And Fight” mate COYI
An example, I’ve only joined late into this season’s fantasy football being a month ago, and already 3 of my 15 selected including Jagielka & our own Sakho are out with injury. There’s only a goalkeeper left, yes of course Payet was in my squad, but when your teams value has risen 1.8 million in 4 weeks on what I started with, who would you transfer and lose 1.8 million with? I know fantasy is only an online game but its an indication of how managers feel when they see all that talent kicked around like rubbish & then have to scrape the barrel of their squads to fill the team’s starting line up, and every year it’s the same because of weak officialdom