OPINION
West Ham defender Angelo Ogbonna must be axed by Manuel Pellegrini for the club’s next game against Arsenal as he submitted a woeful display against Bournemouth on Saturday.
The centre-back, who earns a whopping £70,000-a-week at the London Stadium (Source: Spotrac), could easily be blamed for playing a part in Bournemouth scoring both of their goals during their 2-1 victory over the Hammers on Saturday.
In fact BBC pundits Phil Neville and Ian Wright both questioned Ogbonna on Match of the Day, in the process slamming his latest display, when analysing why the Hammers suffered a defeat to Eddie Howe’s side on Saturday.
“You look there (regarding Callum Wilson’s goal for the Cherries) you’ve got five West Ham defenders around Wilson, can a centre-back get tight?” said Neville (Match of the Day, BBC One Sunday August 19 9:44am).
“Balbuena dives in, Zabaleta slides in doesn’t win the ball and Ogbonna is too slow and the keeper let it go under his body, so look we’ve seen some poor defending at the start of the Premier League but that was really poor.”
Wright then analysed the Cherries’ second goal in the game which ended up handing them victory and highlighted Ogbonna making a mistake once again.
“Poor defending again, look at Ogbonna he is not even looking at the ball, he’s square on, he doesn’t know where the ball is, it’s a good delivery and then he is out muscled,” said the former Arsenal forward (Match of the Day, BBC One Sunday August 19 9:47am).
“I find it utterly astonishing that a defender isn’t looking at the ball, he’s side on, he’s get out muscled, I just can’t understand where it comes from.”
It’s hard to argue with both pundits’ assessment of the 30-year-old’s latest display and it’s clear that these sort of performances aren’t acceptable and are contributing to the Hammers dropping points.
Ogbonna was equally as poor against Liverpool in his side’s Premier League opener and Pellegrini can’t afford to keep him in the Hammers’ line-up with him making so many costly mistakes.
The 30-year-old may have submitted some decent displays during the Hammers’ terrible 2017/18 season but it shouldn’t be enough to see him keep his starting place for the game against Arsenal.
Therefore Pellegrini must instantly axe Ogbonna following his woeful performance against Bournemouth as it’s clear that the BBC pundits were right to tear him apart and put some blame on him for his side’s recent defeat.
