Matt Le Tissier raved about West Ham attacker Michail Antonio after witnessing him perform in the 2-1 win over Southampton on Thursday.
The Sky Sports pundit said that he thought the 28-year-old’s enthusiasm was unbelievable and that due to his versatility he must be an absolute dream for his manager.
Le Tissier even pointed out that when Antonio plays right back, you can sometimes find him on the left flank during games and that is something you don’t often see.
“He was a bundle of energy, his enthusiasm is just unbelievable, he just gets the ball and ends up on the left wing position sometimes when playing right back which you don’t often get,” said the pundit on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday (Sky Sports News, December 29, 14:04).
“And it must be an absolute dream for a manager to have someone like that.”
OPINION
Antonio is absolutely one of the most deserving West Ham players when it comes to receiving praise right now. While the 28-year-old looked like a liability in the first-half of the recent win over Southampton due to not being the most defensively strong right-back in the history of the game, his determination to keep going saw him well in the end. Antonio constantly was everywhere during the game with the Saints and you had no idea where he was going to pop up next. The attacker showed a tremendous amount of energy to keep running throughout the game and in fairness if it hadn’t been for him and Felipe Anderson, then perhaps the Hammers would suffered a surprise defeat. Antonio started his 2018/19 campaign in terrible form, with his past injuries probably affecting him, but he has made a remarkable turnaround in recent weeks. This has to be a testament to his work-ethic and passion as other players wouldn’t have been able to make such a dramatic improvement in a short space of time.
