Michail Antonio gushed about West Ham teammate Sebastien Haller after being asked for his thoughts on him by Jermaine Jenas.
The former Tottenham player shared that he believes Haller looks like a bit of a beast upfront for Manuel Pellegrini’s side and Antonio responded by raving about the Frenchman’s work-rate as well as claimed the forward was perfect for the Premier League.
“Your club spent big this summer by signing Sebastien Haller for £45million from Eintracht Frankfurt, he looks like a bit of a beast up top, what have you made of him, obviously you’ve seen him in training, seen him in games, I would say you’re pretty happy with the business the club’s done there?” stated Jenas on BBC Radio 5 Live (20:24, Friday, October 4th).
Antonio replied: “Oh definitely, I feel like we’ve signed someone that’s key and perfect for the Premier League as he is big, strong and his hold up play is going to keep things ticking.
“Even when he’s not scoring goals, he’s getting assists still so he’s always involved in the goals, and personally, he’s a willing runner, he’s willing to work for the team so it’s a great signing and he will definitely break…he’ll definitely get 15, 12-15 goals.”
OPINION
While Antonio made sure to praise Haller for his ability to hit the back of the net, I mean he even excitingly believes his teammate will hit double digits this season, the fact he focuses on the attacker’s work-rate more than anything else is promising. The West Ham winger made clear that Haller is a team player and that suggests that his teammates appreciate what he does and that he has already fitted into the dressing room already despite only joining the club in the summer. Haller has only registered one assist so far but you feel that the 25-year-old has played his part in a fair share of his teammate’s goals this season due to him using his physical presence to set his side on the attack. The Frenchman has won 7.2 aerial duels on average across his league outings, as per WhoScored, and the Hammers don’t have any other player really capable of dominating in the air. Hammers duo Ryan Fredericks and Issa Diop are the pair who have averaged the most aerial duels aside from Haller and have only on average won 2 per game (Source: WhoScored), so it shows how Haller is important due to bringing something different to the team.
