One of the more far-reaching questions to arise from yesterdays’ FA Cup loss concerns West Ham’s striker duo Pablo Felipe and Taty Castellanos. Both had goals chalked off by VAR in extra time – Castellanos in particular left feeling hard done by with a borderline decision to deny him a spectacular winner.
Taty also rattled the wood work with a diving header and on another day could have scored early on from his six yard box flick which was very well saved by Leeds’ goal keeper Lucas Perri.
Pablo talks to Taty Castellanos before West Ham's game against Chelsea
West Ham’s two forwards both arrived in January
Pablo has yet to get off the mark in a West Ham shirt whilst Taty at least has three goals to his name. Having had a chance to see first hand the high energy impact pressing that the two can provide , there is no doubt that they are hard working, energetic, willing workhorses. But Premier League goal scorers?
Fans will be wondering how Nuno fits Summerville, Bowen, Taty, Pablo, Wilson and Traore into his West Ham attack: Two at least will sit out the West Ham fixture and from Traore’s performance yesterday he’d perhaps be a better starting option than one or other of the January recruits.
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Pablo Felipe, the more inexperienced forward, unlike Castellanos, is clearly not the finished article. As per the NYTimes, during the extra time turnaround yesterday:
“First-team coach Paco Jemez pulled forward Pablo to one side and gestured the kind of offensive runs he needs to make.”
Not sure Jemez’ words or gestures made any difference to Pablo’s involvement.
The Hammers paid something around £20 million for Pablo, which is looking like top dollar for an industrious hard working likeable young man with the touch of a footballer wearing divers lead-filled boots. The longer he plays without scoring, the more the pressure on the young forward will grow – along with the case growing for Nuno to leave him out.
Traore’s man of the match shift yesterday could well signal a change of direction as West Ham go in search of goals and victories between now and May. It’ll be intriguing to see how Nuno sends the Hammers on Friday out for the ‘next cup final’ of the run-in.