Former West Ham United assistant manager Stuart Pearce has criticised Hammers playmaker Felipe Anderson, while ex boss Sam Allardyce feels poor defending is the team’s problem.
Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur made it eight games in a row without a win for the east London outfit, and Pearce feels Anderson has been a big issue.
“They’ve really suffered, I think, from losing [Lukasz] Fabianski – he’s really affected the team,” he told talkSPORT [25/11; 08:07]. “On top of that I think Anderson’s form has dropped, as well. I think he had a great impact when he first came in, and he’s dropped away a little bit.”
Allardyce then weighed in: “The big problem at the moment is certainly the lack of good defending, and lack of good defending as a team. And the goalkeeper, in particular, as Stuart said, is causing them huge problems.”
OPINION
Roberto has certainly been a massive issue for West Ham, there’s no doubt about that. The goalkeeper has utterly failed to fill the void left by Fabianski’s injury, and the team’s defensive capabilities as a whole seem to have disappeared with the former Swansea City stopper. The Anderson one, though, is a difficult thing to judge. His performances certainly seem to have declined from last season, but his statistics have actually been pretty solid this term. As per WhoScored.com, the 26-year-old has bagged three assists, while he is averaging 1.4 shots, 1.3 key passes and 2.3 successful dribbles per game. Unfortunately he’s yet to score, while he’s averaging two unsuccessful touches per outing and is being dispossessed 1.8 times a game. So he’s doing some things right still, but in other areas he has really gone downhill. But Allardyce is right, the defence has been the big issue of late. Manuel Pellegrini’s team simply can’t keep goals out.
