**West Ham and Brazil midfielder Lucas Paquetá needs to pull his socks up if he wants to stay at West Ham, because his recent performances have been nothing short of a disgrace.**
When the whole team is playing awfully, as is happening at West Ham at the moment, it feels harsh to dig out one player. However, Lucas Paquetá is a player that cannot escape criticism.
Paquetá is one of the most talented players West Ham United have ever had, he’s got everything to his game, he can pass, dribble, tackle, shoot, works hard, is skilful and is pretty good aerially.
He has pretty much everything to make it as a top level midfielder in the Premier League, and we’ve seen that in a West Ham shirt at times. He would have earned himself an £85m move to Manchester City in 2022 if it wasn’t for his gambling investigation.
He started slow in a West Ham shirt, before becoming one of our most important players in the run to winning the Conference League and our Europa League run a year later. However, since then, he’s not been inconsistent, he’s been bad, and that’s being highlighted at the moment. His performance against Brentford on Monday night was appalling, yes he was playing up front and out of position, but everything he did went wrong. His passing was completely off it, he lost the majority of his duels and offered absolutely no threat in attack,
When the team is struggling apart from Bowen, the player the fans and teammates will be looking to to make something happen and motivate them is Lucas Paqueta. Not only is he not doing that, he is probably the worst player on the pitch in these games.
He looks like he’s not all his ability, he doesn’t look happy and confident on the pitch at all, and he hasn’t for a good couple of years now. Yes he’s scored a couple of goals this season, but his all-round midfield play has been awful, he looks like he’s got less technical ability than Soucek at the moment. He hasn’t registered an assist in a claret and blue shirt since 7th January 2024, and his last in the Premier League was in December 2023 when he got a hattrick of them against Wolves.
With just a year left on his contract next summer it might be time to cash in on the Brazilian either in January or in the summer. However, reports suggesting we want £60m for the 28-year-old are hard to believe, we’d be lucky to get £20m for him because the most likely move would be a return to Brazil and they can’t afford huge transfer fees. If we can get anything over £30m for him, then unfortunately, it’s time to say goodbye to our ‘Brazilian magnifico.’