There’s a lot of doom and gloom surrounding West Ham United right now, especially after our 4-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
West Ham were embarrassed by our fiercest Premier League rivals on Saturday, and the performance on the whole was quite simply not good enough.
The fact that we didn’t hear from our club captain Jarrod Bowen after the game made matters worse in my opinion.
Julen Lopetegui has been panned by fans and pundits alike for his disastrous start to life in charge at the London Stadium, with numerous top tier journalists such as Jacob Steinberg going in hard on him.
And rightly so. The Spaniard hasn’t done enough as far as I’m concerned, but it’s still very early days, and he deserves to be given more time as far as I’m concerned.
Also, if we are going to criticise him, it’s only fair that we praise him for the good things he’s done as well.
They may well be few and far between, but it’s only right that we give Lopetegui his flowers for one decision in particular
Aaron Wan-Bissaka an outstanding signing for West Ham
West Ham paid £15 million to bring the 26-year-old full-back to the London Stadium from Manchester United in the summer (Sky Sports).
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I can’t think of many players who have proven to be better value for money for us than Wan-Bissaka for £15 million.
He has already been one of our two standout performers this season, alongside Max Kilman.
The only reason why Man United sold him was to balance the books financially.
They probably will be wishing they had kept hold of him now, after his sensational performance for the Hammers against Spurs.
He made five tackles, four interceptions, four clearances and completed four dribbles. He made 47 passes and recorded a completion rate of 83% (Who Scored).
Those numbers are seriously impressive, and Wan-Bissaka’s performance got me thinking.
What on earth would the score have been had Vladimir Coufal been starting?
I’m not knocking Vlad, he’s a great professional and has been a very solid performer for us over the past four years.
However, Wan-Bissaka is quite clearly on another level entirely to the Czech Republic international.
I think there is a genuine argument to be made that the money we laid out on the 26-year-old is the best £15 million we’ve ever spent.
His pace and power offers us so much down the right hand flank, and I fully expect him to get better and better now over the next few weeks and months.
All we need now is for the rest of the West Ham squad to raise their performances up to Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s levels.
And whilst there is plenty of doom and gloom at the London Stadium, Wan-Bissaka’s performances have been the silver lining.