By Louis Nixon
**James Ward-Prowse has been frozen out of the West Ham United squad in recent weeks, but should he be given another chance in light of our midfield woes?**
Since Nuno Espirito Santo’s arrival, it was highly anticipated that he would be making several starting squad changes once entering the club. It was publicly known that Nuno had distaste towards Ward-Prowse, which was shown through his time at Nottingham Forest, he dropped the player whilst he was on loan, subsequently taking the same action once arriving at West Ham.
Ward-Prowse suddenly shifted from a player who started every game under Graham Potter to a player who can’t even be involved within the matchday squad under Nuno Espirito Santo.
Our midfield, since Nuno has arrived, has changed frequently which has seen Magassa, Potts, Fernandes, Paqueta, Irving and Soucek all receive game time for the Hammers’ midfield, but considering the lethargic and underwhelming performances shown through Andy Irving as well as others, that would surely indicate Ward-Prowse would be considered to come back into the squad and provide that creative spark we are missing…
Whilst he may provide creativity, in moments like these, especially from set pieces, it’s easy to forget truly how poor Ward-Prowse was under Graham Potter and if you were to ask 90% of fans to remove a player from the squad at the time, it would’ve been him.
Seeing as he’s not played for a few weeks, most will have forgotten the performances we regularly watched and how outnumbered or out of place he seemed on a pitch. He wasn’t in tune with anyone else which cost us in the handful of games we had with Potter this season, which Nuno evidently identified with him whilst at Forest.
Our midfield might be overwhelmingly poor, but reinstating someone who already has a bad track record isn’t a strong solution to our gaping problem. We need to get Freddie Potts in that midfield before we try anyone else.