Leaving Manuel Lanzini out of West Ham’s starting lineup in recent weeks is an “utterly bizarre” decision from Manuel Pellegrini, according to Adrian Durham.
The £70,000-a-week Argentine [Spotrac] faces a spell on the sidelines after picking up an injuring the 3-0 defeat to Burnley over the weekend – the third successive match he failed to start.
And Durham has admitted that he is baffled by the selection choice.
Speaking on talkSPORT, he said: “Lanzini’s out, by the way, for a little while.
“He’s got a bad injury, he’s had to have surgery on that, but he wasn’t even getting in the starting line-up, which I think is utterly bizarre.”
OPINION
Durham is absolutely right. Nobody in a claret and blue shirt is exactly flourishing at the moment, and as a result, it seems illogical to leave out a player who has proven time and time again that he has what it takes to be a match winner. In a slump like this one, sometimes you need a bit of magic to snap you out of it, and there are few wizards as proficient as Lanzini in east London. Football should be a meritocracy, and while the South American has hardly been a trailblazer so far this season, he has looked brighter than some of his teammates. With an average of 2.5 successful dribbles, 1.9 key passes, and 1.3 shots on goal, as per Whoscored, he was at least trying to drag the Hammers out of this tailspin. Now that he has suffered this injury, however, he could be in a whole load of trouble, and the longer he is ruled out for, the more you would have to worry about the Irons this term.
