**West Ham manager Nuno Espírito Santo should consider playing Lucas Paqueta at striker should Callum Wilson and Marshall fail to make an impression.**
With the new Niclas Fullkrug will be out for a few weeks, West Ham need to find a solution for an already existing problem at the top end of the pitch. The German was cutting it up front, so who knows, it could be a blessing in disguise.
The only problem is, the options to replace him aren’t very promising. Nuno doesn’t seem to fancy Callum Wilson, so it looks like Callum Marshall will get the chance to shine.
We don’t know whether or not Marshall is ready for the Premier League, he has only played 28 minutes against the worlds meanest defence. But the fact it looks like Nuno is willing to give him a chance is great.
However, if it doesn’t work out for the Northern Ireland International at the top level yet, and Wilson isn’t fit enough to start matches, Lucas Paqueta as a number nine could be the way forward.
The centre-forward position isn’t one that’s unfamiliar to Lucas Paqueta. He’s played there nineteen times in his career, including six times for West Ham already. In fact, he started there vs Fulham last season and scored a goal.
He’s never really played there consistently so he hasn’t been able to show much in the position, bu the does have pretty much every skill you need to be a striker in the Premier League.
Paqueta is strong, he can hold the ball up well, tall, he’s pretty good aerially and most importantly he’s a very good finisher, easily one of the best at the club.
The biggest criticism thrown at Paqueta over the past year or so is his complete lack of creativity, in fact the Brazilian hasn’t recorded an assist for the Hammers in almost two years, his last one came as the third of a hat trick of assists in a 3-0 win over Wolves in December 2023.
So, why not take the creative burden off of Paqueta and play him uo front, giving new £42m signing Matheus Fernandes the responsibility of being the main creator in the team and to provide chances for the Brazilian.
It would also allow another goalscoring threat in Tomas Soucek to come back into the starting lineup, only Jarrod Bowen has scored more goals for West Ham than Soucek over the past three seasons, so bringing him back in would bring a huge attacking boost.