OPINION
West Ham attacker Lucas Perez surely is in Manuel Pellegrini’s doghouse after his awful display against Everton on Saturday.
The Hammers manager put his trust in the 5ft 11in tall [Source: Transfermarkt] player by handing him a rare start against the Toffees and the forward betrayed him by submitting an awful display.
Several Hammers players struggled in the 2-0 loss to Toffees, but given that Perez’s was surprisingly given the nod to start even with Javier Hernandez available, you’d think he’d play out of his skin to impress.
Yet that wasn’t the case.
Perez didn’t justify his position in Pellegrini’s latest starting line-up as it’s hard to remember any form of positive impact he made.
The experienced forward didn’t seem to go the extra mile to get on the ball or cause problems for the Toffees, and it was hard to remember that he was on the pitch.
Perez was so bad that Pellegrini had to bring him off at half-time despite previously backing him to do well by playing him.
The Hammers manager put a lot of faith in the attacker by starting him as he has struggled in nearly all of his 11 league appearances for the club this season.
Pellegrini will now have to deal with fans’ anger until the next game as while Perez deserves their stick, they’ll take his bad performance out on the Hammers boss as it was a bold decision to play him.
With this in mind Perez has caused his manager bother on and off the field, and that must see his name firmly written in Pellegrini’s bad books.
