Standout players for West Ham this season

National World - LocalTV

A look at the current best players throughout their side this season and those who have gone under the radar.

Transcript

00:00And James, looking at West Ham's season in terms of obviously, you know, we've had the

00:08managerial change, etc. Who's sort of been the standout player when it comes to this

00:12campaign in terms of, you know, consistent performances? There's not been much consistency

00:18as a group, but has there been individual consistency anywhere? Has anyone sort of impressed

00:23fans in terms of if you look back at this season, who's had a good season or something

00:28that sort of stands out from the rest? Well, I mean, the obvious candidate there is Jarrod

00:32Bowen. He was given the captaincy, the club captaincy last summer by Lopetegui. And he

00:39has once again kind of just been our talisman. We missed him for five games with that broken

00:46foot injury that picked up at the back end of last year. But, you know, on his return

00:49against Chelsea last week, he scores and he didn't stop running and he was our man of

00:53the match. So we, beyond that, there haven't been, admittedly, there haven't been many

01:01top performers. But I would like to call out Thomas Sutek as a player that tends to go

01:07under the radar a little bit. Everyone knows him as, you know, this sort of not easy on

01:13the eye central midfielder, but very good at making runs into the box. Very good aerial.

01:17He's a really good aerial threat. I think he's closing on 40 Premier League goals since

01:20he joined the club. So for a central midfielder, that's pretty good. But this season, even

01:26when Lopetegui came in, there were a lot of fans going, this is probably the end of Thomas

01:31Sutek. Don't see how he fits into the team. And at the beginning of the season, he wasn't

01:35getting in the team. And then Lopetegui very quickly realised that actually he needs someone

01:41in there like Sutek to shore things up. And he's been our best central midfielder this

01:46season. And then since Potters come in, again, he's been probably our best central midfielder.

01:51So I think, you know, Bowen aside, he will always get all the plaudits for goal scoring

01:56and being the club captain. But Thomas Sutek, he's not scored as many goals this season

02:00than we would normally get from him for midfield. But his performance levels have been consistent

02:05and they've been up there. So he definitely deserves a good shout. And at the back, Max

02:10Kilman, I think he's been worth every single penny of that £14 million we paid for him.

02:14It's been very difficult for him. He's not had a consistent, regular centre-back partner.

02:21It's always, you know, one minute it's Thaddeo, then it's Mithra Parnas. But he's been the

02:26ever-present there in the centre of our defence and he's been brilliant. There hasn't been

02:30any situation where he's been at fault for a goal. And, you know, if he can get a regular

02:35partner alongside him, who's consistently alongside him, I think he'll only get better

02:41for West Ham.

02:45And has there been anyone who's sort of impressed you in terms of maybe their West Ham future?

02:49And you've obviously mentioned that they're going to want to make a real push next season

02:53for Europe again. Is there anyone who could massively stand out and use this time under

02:58Potter to really improve and then go fresh slate next season? Is there anyone who's gone

03:03maybe a bit under the radar? And obviously you mentioned Thomas Sutek.

03:06Yeah, I mean, given everything I said about Thomas Sutek, there are still a lot of question

03:10marks over sort of long-term, what is his future like at West Ham? But if we're looking

03:17long-term, there are two players that really stand out. The first one is Cossensio Somerville.

03:23Another one that's been very unlucky with an injury recently, picked up at the beginning

03:26of the year. But every time he's played, under both managers, admittedly he's only played

03:3245 minutes on the ground part of it, but in that 45 minutes, he looked very good at Vasta

03:36Villa in the FA Cup. But he's just looked very, very good. It's very obvious why he

03:41was player of the season for Leeds in the championship last year. So he's one, if we

03:47can get him back fit and firing, I think he's one to certainly look out for next season.

03:50But the other one has gone massively under the radar and hasn't had many minutes this

03:54season is Luis Guilherme, the young Brazilian that we signed. He came off the bench, I mean,

04:01he's mostly had 10 minutes here, five minutes there, but he came off the bench for the last

04:04five minutes against Chelsea and looked really, really good. The first couple of minutes he

04:10was on the pitch, he looked a little bit nervous, but then he just grabbed the game. And, you

04:14know, there was a couple of moments where, you know, he was bombing, you know, bombing

04:17through the midfield and beating players, putting crosses in. But he's only 18 and there's

04:22a lot of expectation because, you know, we paid £25 million for him and there were rumours

04:26that we were going to cut our losses and sell him in January. Grandpot decided to keep him

04:31And he showed just in that very small cameo at Chelsea that there is a player there and

04:36he's very highly rated in Brazil. So a little bit more game time. And I think, you know,

04:41we might have a bit of a bit of a gem on our hands there. So there's a little bit of hope

04:45that maybe Luis Guilherme next season, if we're not forced to sell him for PSR reasons

04:50in the summer, could be a little bit of a dark horse in West Ham's squad.

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