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Cascarino: West Ham trio are missing

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Tony Cascarino has bemoaned West Ham’s “wretched” recent form, and has claimed that the trio of Manuel Lanzini, Felipe Anderson, and Pablo Fornals have “gone missing” for the Hammers. 

Manuel Pellegrini’s side extended their winless run in the Premier League to six matches with a 3-0 defeat to Burnley on Saturday, and Cascarino pulled no punches in his assessment.

Writing in a column for the Times, he said: “West Ham’s wretched couple of months have coincided with injury to Lukasz Fabianski, their first-choice goalkeeper.

“While I cannot remember a poorer performance from a goalkeeper in a Premier League match than Roberto’s display at Burnley on Saturday, he is not the sole reason for their downturn.

“West Ham are easily undone at set pieces. Flair players, such as Manuel Lanzini, Pablo Fornals and Felipe Anderson have gone missing too often. Pellegrini has credit in the bank but, with matches against Tottenham and Chelsea next, his position could be under more scrutiny.”

OPINION

How can you argue with Cascarino on this one? Six games without a win is disasters for a side who are meant to be pushing for Europe this season, and while they may be just the four points off fifth, they have a difficult run of games coming up and absolutely no momentum whatsoever going into them. Not a single West Ham player can hold their head up high at the moment, but the general lack of creativity is a real concern. Taking Fornals as an example, the Spaniard has shown nothing to suggest that he has what it takes to make it in the Premier League since arriving in England, and against the Clarets on Saturday, he failed to register a single shot, key pass, or successful dribble, as per Whoscored. If your flair players aren’t on song, how are you meant to score goals, and the longer this slump goes on, the more you have to seriously question Manuel Pellegrini’s position as boss. 

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