Former Republic of Ireland international Tony Cascarino has torn into West Ham United playmaker Felipe Anderson after his performance against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
The Brazil international was hooked at half-time in the 3-2 defeat to Jose Mourinho’s side – which wasn’t as close as the scoreline suggests – and Cascarino wasn’t impressed.
“Felipe Anderson, who played yesterday, AGAIN, I’m just watching a shadow of the player from what I saw last season,” he said on talkSPORT [24/11; 06:12].
“Anderson was anonymous, he was taken off after 45 minutes, we hardly saw him in the game.”
OPINION
There’s no doubt that Anderson has really struggled to replicate his 2018/19 form in the early part of this campaign. He’s been poor in possession, ineffective in front of goal and just generally symptomatic of his team’s struggles this term. You’ve got to wonder what a different manager could do for the 26-year-old right now, because clearly Manuel Pellegrini isn’t getting the best out of him. When you examine the statistics from the Tottenham game, it’s another reminder of how far Anderson’s form has dipped this season. As per WhoScored.com, the former Lazio man produced no shots or key passes, while he only embarked on one successful dribble. Furthermore, he was dispossessed once and had two unsuccessful touches, on his way to a horrific WhoScored rating of 5.97. Only two West Ham players came away with worse ratings than the Brazilian, which simply isn’t acceptable given his unbelievable natural ability.
