BBC Sport pundits Jermaine Jenas and Glenn Murray have praised theĀ surprising defensive impact of West Ham midfielder Felipe Anderson.
The Brazilian arrived at the Hammers from Lazio this summer with a reputation as a flair player, but BBC Radio 5 Live revealed that he has already made more tackles (39) that Dimitri Payet (33) did in his entire West Ham career.
Murray has been seriously impressed: “You never know how players are going to adapt, do you?,” he told 5 Live. “Probably when they looked at Felipe they thought he may be, like you say, a bit of a luxury player. But he’s proved everyone wrong, he’s come and he’s tracking back and putting the tackles in.”
Jenas retorted: “Also, I think that’s a complete change in West Ham’s style of play, though. They were very much reliant on Dimitri Payet and he delivered on a regular basis. So he obviously thought ‘just get me the ball and I’ll do the business.’ Maybe it falls in line, a little bit, with how [Manuel] Pellegrini likes to play.”
Number of tackles made in #WHUFC career:
Felipe Anderson – 39 in 16 games;
Dimitri Payet – 33 in two seasons.@DFletcherSport and @JJenas8 discuss the defensive impact Anderson has with the Hammers.š» Listen live: https://t.co/EKtfsenvdD pic.twitter.com/rWf6SMfkuN
— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) December 14, 2018
OPINION
It has been a bit of a surprise to see how hard Anderson works on the defensive side of his game. He has enough talent where some players in his position would say ‘I’m notĀ going to track back, just give me the ball and let me do my thing’. Instead, he prioritises the team over himself and follows Pellegrini’s instructions to the letter. He is diligent in his defensive duties and, while that could still beĀ improved – he does switch off at times, he provides this Hammers team with fantastic shape both offensively and defensively. Everyone thought the former Lazio man would come in and contribute going forward, which he has done tremendously, but not many people expected to see a so-called ‘luxury player’ doing the hard yards and helping out his full back. It’s a credit to the 25-year-old and he should be very proud of what he has achieved so far at the LondonĀ Stadium.
