This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
West Ham dominated for large spells on Saturday and, but for some poor decision-making from Manuel Pellegrini, they could have taken all three points from the game.
The Hammers enjoyed 61% possession but the match was finely poised after Lys Mousset equalised for the visitors with around 20 minutes to go, and though the Chilean was right to look towards his substitute’s bench, he turned to the wrong man to turn things around.
Pablo Fornals struggled to make the kind of impact his manager and the home crowd were hoping for, with just eight touches in the more than 15 minutes he spent on the pitch, including stoppage time.
Watch West Ham United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below
As a result, he failed to influence the match in West Ham’s favour, and was careless throughout, managing a pass accuracy of just 60%, which did at least support Pellegrini’s decision to start Robert Snodgrass ahead of him.
He did fire in one cross that almost allowed the Scot to slide the ball home, but his lack of contribution underlines the worrying lack of options on the Hammers’ bench.
Underwhelming
Fornals has underwhelmed so far no matter how his manager has tried to use him.
He is failing to make a significant contribution whether he starts games or is subbed on, and Pellegrini must be wondering how he can extract the best form out of the Spaniard.
The decision to play the 5ft 10 man at right midfield against Everton was a puzzling one, as Andriy Yarmolenko has been in fine form with three goals this term, and provided the assist for West Ham’s goal against Sheffield United.
By comparison, the Spaniard has failed to contribute directly to a single goal, and has managed just 0.6 key passes and 0.4 successful dribbles per game.
Such a return is not good enough for a side looking to improve upon last season’s tenth-placed finish.
The longer Fornals continues to underperform, the greater the scrutiny that will be heaped on Pellegrini, as so far Sebastien Haller is the only one of his summer signings to make any kind of significant impact.
