Former Republic of Ireland international Tony Cascarino has slammed West Ham United playmaker Felipe Anderson for his performance against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The Brazilian failed to influence proceedings as much as he would have liked as the Hammers slipped to a disappointing 2-1 defeat at the London Stadium.
Cascarino wasn’t impressed: “Felipe Anderson was tremendous last year,” he said on talkSPORT [06/10; 07:28]. “He hasn’t quite got to the levels of what he was last season, which is a bit of a disappointment.
“[Manuel] Lanzini’s been injured, but he’s another top quality footballer. But they didn’t quite make it happen for West Ham yesterday.”
OPINION
It’s strange that Cascarino has picked out Anderson for criticism, because there were plenty of West Ham players who performed far worse than the former Lazio man on Saturday. Was this one of his best games for the club? No, but he wasn’t half bad. Certainly, he tried to get things going, even if he wasn’t always successful. The statistics are really not in favour of Cascarino’s argument, here. As per WhoScored.com, the 26-year-old produced two shots on Saturday, one on target, both tallies second only to Sebastien Haller out of the West Ham team. He also made a key pass and won an aerial duel. Meanwhile, he had 82 touches of the ball, the most of any Hammers star. He needed to be better in possession, he had two unsuccessful touches and was dispossessed four times, but he at least tried to spark the Irons into life. His WhoScored rating for the game of 7.34 was only lower than Ryan Fredericks and Haller in a claret and blue shirt.
