OPINION
Sky Sports journalist Mark McAdam provided live updates on West Ham’s 1-0 win over Fulham on Saturday and it didn’t take long before Sebastien Haller caught his eye.
The Sky Sports reporter, in his first update on the game, shared that he was confident that the French forward would be a handful for a number of Premier League defenders solely based on his size.
McAdam highlighted that Haller had some nice touches of the ball in the opening stages of the game and even pointed out that he noticed the attacker dropping into some nice pockets of space in order to get the ball.
“Manuel Pellegrini has unleashed his record signing here in West London and Sebastien Haller has had a good 13 minutes,” said McAdam on Sky Sports News (15:15, Saturday, July 27th).
“He has had some nice touches and played through the middle but the first thing that smacks you, is his size, he is a physical presence on the pitch.
“He is a powerful striker, he’s dropped into some nice pockets, picked up the ball, one or two nice little flicks, he looks dangerous.
“He is certainly going to be a handful for a number of Premier League defenders throughout the forthcoming campaign.”
While McAdam’s verdict was only based on the opening 13 minutes of the game, many West Ham fans will hope the Sky Sports journalist is right to claim that the forward will be a handful as the Hammers need a capable striker to fire them to glory.
The Hammers spent £45million, as stated by the BBC, on signing the 6ft 3in tall attacker (Source: Transfermarkt) and that makes it sound like West Ham are putting most of their eggs in the forward’s basket when it comes to getting goals in the 2019/20 campaign.
After waving goodbye to 2018/19 topscorer Marko Arnautovic and also Andy Carroll as well as Lucas Perez, the Hammers need someone to be prolific for them.
The 25-year-old grabbed 33 goals in 77 appearances for Eintracht Frankfurt during a two-year spell, and 20 of those goals coming in his latest campaign, so if he can rack up similar numbers for the Hammers he will be a hit.
Haller, won 6.9 of his aerial duels per game last season (WhoScored), and it seems based on McAdam’s verdict that his physicality will serve him well in English football.
