Pablo Fornals is destroyed by Joe Cole as West Ham United loses to Olympiacos.
Pablo Fornals of West Ham United was criticized by Joe Cole for his defensive display against Olympiacos, calling the player a “mannequin.”
On Thursday, October 26, the Hammers’ glorious run of consecutive victories in Europe came to an end when the Greek team defeated them 2-1 thanks to goals from Konstantinos Fortounis in the first half and an own goal from Angelo Ogbonna just before the break.
Fornals, who has been a regular in the Europa League this season once again started in an attacking midfield role, but failed to impact the game positively before being hooked by David Moyes before the hour mark and Cole was lefty frustrated by the Spaniard’s defensive work.
At the interval on October 26, 18:40, he made the following statement on TNT Sport: “West Ham dropped way below the standards that this group of players has set.” Not sufficiently narrow to for such a cross to enter. That might have entered for roughly five seconds before Ogbonna Given that he didn’t play frequently and committed an error in the first half, I believe he is suffering.
“These tiny elements add up when you’re a winger and you’re running all the way back with your full-back; your goal is to try and stop the cross, not to seem like a robot. For the past three years, this group of athletes has been active on Thursday nights. Tonight, they neglected to do the fundamentals, and as a result, they were disciplined.
Requirements
Fornals has struggled mightily for West Ham this season, and it doesn’t seem like the midfielder for the Hammers is really concerned about attempting to turn around his struggling career at the London Stadium while he still has trouble in the Europa League.
He gave the Brazilian plenty of time and space to swing a cross into the area under no pressure at all from the Hammers midfielder, and his failure to close down Rodinei for the home team’s second goal was nothing short of lazy.
Given the impressive form of the other players who are currently occupying the Spanish midfielder’s position in Moyes’ side, Fornals has to do more in his limited opportunities to show that he is deserving of adding to his single start in the Premier League this season.
Currently, he is doing little to suggest he even deserves to make the bench and with his contract expiring at the end of the season, you doubt those in charge at the London Stadium will be too desperate to extend his stay in East London.
