**Soungoutou Magassa held his place in the starting squad as Nuno opted for a midfield three, but the Frenchman continues to cause concern amongst Hammers fans.**
Upon recieving his first moments of game time, people were able to see the ability of Magassa straight away and many fans were elated with the performances he was having, however, as time has passed, it has become apparent that whilst the Frenchman has the ability and skills to keep up with the rest of the side, he’s not been able to consistently demonstrate his skill.
The Frenchman this afternoon looked the same as he did against Bournemouth. He plays in the midfield floater role where he often pushes up with the attackers to provide support to them. His most frequent positioning comes from the left and right parts of the pitch just beyond the halfway line, where he seeks to find another body. This afternoon, he managed to achieve a 75% successful pass rate, 21 out of 28 passes completed, a stat that would appear positive but in reality, it’s nowhere near enough.
Playing the ball in the right places is one aspect of the game, but playing it with confidence is another. On our hands, we’ve got a young, talented prospect who’s fighting to keep his spot in the squad as well as survive. He plays with little to no confidence and those nerves that he experiences often hinder the squad in other areas and prove to be costly.
There were numerous moments where, instead of making progressive passes, of which he made one to the final third, he often went for a safer option, either passing backwards or a shorter pass to someone to let them run by someone or pick out the difficult pass. That is the problem with Magassa.
Soungoutou is a great player who’s got the potential to be solid, but he would do better in a primarily defensive midfield role, which is currently occupied by Tomas Soucek himself, hence why Nuno often opts for Potts when he’s available, seeing as he’s got the ability and confidence to pick out a pass or drive the ball forwards.
I hope Magassa can find the form within himself but when someone is struggling for confidence, it can certainly harm others around them.