OPINION
The search for answers on why Manuel Pellegrini has continued to play West Ham winger Michail Antonio despite signing Andriy Yarmolenko this summer has ended.
It’s been quite a mystery why Antonio has found himself regularly featuring for the Hammers this season as his display have been woeful.
The 28-year-old has only missed out on featuring in his side’s clash against Bournemouth, due to the club trying to protect him from injuries (Source: Pellegrini talking to the club’s official site) and has played a part in all of their other matches this season.
This is the case despite Antonio being torn apart in the Hammers’ Premier League opener with Liverpool, submitting a lethargic display against Arsenal and being ineffective as well as exposed defensively against Wolves.
Yet despite Pellegrini welcoming the 6ft 2in tall right-sided winger Yarmolenko (Source: Transfermarkt) to the London Stadium from Borussia Dortmund this summer, Antonio has strangely been able to keep him from starting.
Instead the West Ham manager has only unleashed the Ukrainian winger sparingly with the 45 minutes he played against Wolves, the most playing time he has seen in a Premier League match so far.
While Yarmolenko was deployed in the EFL Cup clash with AFC Wimbledon in which he looked worryingly ineffective, it wasn’t like a lot of his other teammates didn’t submit the performances their quality implies they’re capable of against the League One opposition.
It still seemed clear that given Antonio’s continued poor form that Pellegrini should have been leaping at the chance to replace him with Yarmolenko in his staring line-up.
However following the Ukrainian’s display for his country against Slovakia in the Nations League on Sunday, it was clear the winger was far from being fully fit.
Yarmolenko may have scored the winning goal in his nation’s narrow 1-0 victory from the penalty spot but that didn’t mask the fact he wasn’t firing on all cylinders.
The 28-year-old was a yard off the pace and struggled to keep up with the game as for the most part, it simply passed him by.
This all means that thanks to Yarmolenko’s international display it seems the mystery about why Antonio has been kept in Pellegrini’s team ahead of him is now solved.
