After a flying start to life in at West Ham, things have taken a bit of a turn for the worst for Sébastien Haller in recent weeks.
The striker joined the Hammers in a £36m deal this summer as they spent big to try and solve their lack of goals.
Four goals and an assist in his first seven games suggested it was money well spent as the Frenchman made a positive impact and earned plenty of rave reviews.
However, the situation has quickly turned sour, with Haller currently having gone six games without a goal or an assist to his name.
That saw him dropped for the clash with Chelsea at the weekend, as West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini preferred a front two of Michail Antonio and Felipe Anderson instead in the 1-0 win.
Finding a solution to the Haller issue will be high on the agenda for the Hammers moving forward and to do so, they need to discover what the cause of his drought is first.
He explains that at Frankfurt Hallers ‘was able to focus on the front third’ and not much else, whereas at West Ham he is asked to ‘always work on the defensive’ and ‘sacrifice himself’ before then also having to be a ‘lone fighter at the very front’.
Then there’s the expectation on his shoulders, with it said he is ‘feeling’ the expectation from the club because his price tag was a ‘huge number’ for a ‘middle-class’ team like the Hammers.
Essentially, Michel believes that West Ham, for who he says ‘relegation battles instead of European cup is a sad reality’, are to blame for Haller’s struggles.
If they are to get the best out of their star striker, it seems all they need to do is change the system, ideally copying the one at Frankfurt, and lay off him a little and things will turn around.
