By Louis Nixon
**Brighton loanee Igor Julio made an impressive cameo against Burnley, but should he be considered for a starting spot?**
Igor Julio has yet to receive a start for West Ham since he joined the Hammers on loan from Brighton for the season. He’s made numerous substitute appearances, but he hasn’t been able to edge into the starting squad ahead of Jean-Clair Todibo and Max Kilman.
Whilst Todibo appears to have stepped up his performances for this season, especially in recent times, the same can’t really be said for Max Kilman despite winning two on the bounce.
If we look at Burnley’s first and opening goal of the match, you can see Max Kilman is at fault for his marking; he loses track of the man, which subsequently means he has a later reaction to the jump, as he needs to make additional movements to get towards the ball which gives the Burnley forward the edge and putting them 1-0 up. Fortunately, the goal wouldn’t come to haunt us but on another day, it very well could.
However, overlooking Kilman’s woes, if we focus on Igor’s 14-minute cameo, you’ll notice that for the Kyle Walker-Peters goal, Igor ultimately creates the opportunity for Soucek, which leads to the third goal, his hold-up play on the ball and his control that he had in that situation was excellent and certainly something we could utilise in the future.
Considering one of the significant reasons why we signed Kilman was for his good footwork on the ball, we’ve now seen Igor produce more from his control than Kilman has all season, so it begs the question, Should Igor start?
It’s not unheard of to change a winning formula, but it does always come with its risks. However, at this moment in time, everything is indicating that Igor should get the nod to start for the Hammers, but we’ll have to wait until after the international break to see if that idea comes true.