What needs to change at West Ham United from last season?

This season is a big one for West Ham United. A repeat of last season could see key players move and the club’s hopes of fighting for Europe be gone. So what needs to change at the club?

Michail Antonio’s position

Antonio has been one of our best players in recent years after signing from Nottingham Forest for a reported £7m in 2015. But he has been hampered by the club’s failure to sign a right-back that has performed well enough. This has meant that we have seen Antonio being played at right-back, a position where it is clear that he struggles consistently. Last season, he played 10 games there.

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Antonio is best when he is on the right of midfield, driving at defenders and arriving late in the box. We have now signed Pablo Zabaleta meaning that this should be the end of Antonio playing at right-back. Antonio managed to get 9 goals and 3 assists last season and given that he played 10 games at right-back, can he top that this season?

Our home record

The move to the London Stadium has not been the smooth transition that the club would have been hoping for. Rather, there has been multiple incidents regarding policing, poor performances on the pitch, and an atmosphere that is far inferior than that of Upton Park.

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We only managed to pick up 25 points at home last season, which was the 16th highest in the Premier League. During our last season at Upton Park, we got 34 points which was 7th highest in the Premier League. We have to improve our home performances if we want to avoid the disappointing run of last season where we went on long winless runs. There are no excuses now. We have played a whole season in our new home and both the players and manager have had time to adapt.

The impact of summer signings

Last summer was full of speculation of West Ham signing a ‘star’ striker with the likes of Alexandre Lacazette and Michy Batshuayi being heavily linked. Instead, we saw the club fail in these attempts and those that were signed had little impact on the team.

Havard Nordtveit and Alvaro Arbeloa are no longer at the club. Robert Snodgrass (signed in January), Sofiane Feghouli and Gokhan Tore only managed 22 starts between them. Tore is no longer at the club. Andre Ayew, Simone Zaza, Jonathan Calleri, and Ashley Fletcher only scored 7 goals between them all season. The last three are not at the club anymore.

This year, there is no doubt that we have made better signings. Given their Premier League experience, they should have an immediate impact on the team and help avoid a repeat of last season’s performances.