Chris Kamara heaped praise on West Ham midfielder Manuel Lanzini for his display in the 1-1 draw with Brighton on Saturday.
The Sky Sports presenter claimed that the Hammers playmaker was the best player for Manuel Pellegrini’s side by a million miles due to his strength, power and dribbling ability.
Kamara then raved about the pass Lanzini played through to Javier Hernandez, which the Mexican ended up scoring from, and pointed out how once the ball got to the attacker that you expected him to score from there nine times out of 10.
“Lanzini was West Ham’s best player by a million miles, strength, power, dribbling ability, right, gets this ball to Chicharito, he goes through and you know nine times out ten he will find the back of the net,” said Kamara on Sky Sports’ Goal on Sunday (12:50, Sky Sports Premier League, Sunday August 18th).
OPINION
Given how busy Lukasz Fabianski was between the sticks for the Hammers, you feel the goalkeeper was arguably the best player on the pitch for Pellegrini’s side on Saturday, however, it’s understandable why Kamara was impressed with Lanzini. The 26-year-old kept trying to make things happen and that was impressive to see. While at times, Lanzini’s end product was lacking, at the end of the day when he did get it right it led to a goal. Pellegrini will be hoping that Lanzini is, therefore, able to build on his display against Brighton, as you feel the 26-year-old is capable of being a match-winner. The experienced manager was only able to see glimpses of Lanzini’s talent last season, as he managed only 10 appearances due to being unavailable for selection for 33 games due to injuries (Source: Transfermarkt). However given that Lanzini has made it through the first two league games unscathed and seems to be fully recovered from last season’s issues, the future does look promising with him in the team.