**Brazilian striker Pablo Felipe could miss West Ham’s opening home fixture of the Championship season vs Charlton tomorrow.**
A lot of Hammers fans would hear the news of Pablo’s injury and think, this it isn’t a big deal. Some will probably laugh at the headline saying ‘crucial’ player. Yes, he’s been poor and we’ve just signed Joel Piroe, and that is sort of true.
However, despite his lack of goals, he is very important to the team and that was very evident against Burnley last weekend when he came off at half time with a calf injury.
He came off, we went more defensive and we had no attacking outlet. He doesn’t win many headers for his height, he can’t get the ball under control, but he’s a nuisance, he fights for every ball, and as bad as he might be technically, defenders can’t ignore him, they have to mark him which creates space for others like Taty, Bowen and Solomon.
Taty was non existent in that second half without Pablo up there. Piroe is likely to come in and replace Pablo in the team straight away and he offers the physical presence up tere that Pablo does, but not the hard-work. The pressing and picking up loose balls is a crucial part of his match that really benefits the team.
If Nuno didn’t want to throw Piroe straight in he could change to a 4-3-3 and play a midfield three of Orford, Kante, and Engels with a front three of Solomon, Taty, and Bowen. Or he could even throw brand new signing Divine Musaka into the ten role, but I can’t see him changing it.
If Pablo is out, it will be the usual formation, the same lineup as last weekend with Joel Piroe alongside Taty Castellanons.