Welcome Paquetá
It's finally official, he's here. Our eighth senior signing of the summer and our new record signing:
https://www.whufc.com/news/west-ham-united-sign-brazil-star-lucas-paqueta-record-fee
Obviously a hugely exciting signing, one that will hopefully give us that little bit of spark that we seem to have been missing and that will quite possibly lift the rest of the squad. I don't say this often, but well done G&S and, I suspect, Danny K.
As suggested, he's nicking Vlasic's no.11
https://www.whufc.com/news/west-ham-united-sign-brazil-star-lucas-paqueta-record-fee
Obviously a hugely exciting signing, one that will hopefully give us that little bit of spark that we seem to have been missing and that will quite possibly lift the rest of the squad. I don't say this often, but well done G&S and, I suspect, Danny K.
As suggested, he's nicking Vlasic's no.11
Comments
Someone seems to be selling our project and hats off to whoever it is. Whether it's the Newman effect I don't know, but we seem to be serious this summer. Some talk on other forums that Kretinsky has been more involved this summer, but whatever the reason, no-one can claim that Moyes isn't being backed.
Can't wait to see Paqueta play; he could be a genuine game-changer for us.
At least we know what the delay was now
Took a while to get him too the roof of the stadium 😅
Don’t want the experience of Hull putting him off good ol Blighty
Anyway, welcome Paqueta!
As someone has pointed out before, this is why it's worth not buying all of your targets in June/July
He is a player who should be playing champions league but no one took the risk, so now he was made available and we have got ourselves what appears on paper one of the most exciting signings this summer
Really looking forward to him playing, we've lacked a bit of guile of a proper playmaker
He seems like he plays like Lanzini but is an upgrade in almost every aspect of his game (apart from potentially long range shooting)
Suspect he will be used as a #10 behind Scamacca/Antonio, or in a 3 man midfield which he does for Lyon (at least this season)
So where does Moyes play him? AM or CM?
Did we sign Emerson so there would be another player who spoke Portuguese?
Handing him the No.11 shirt is a rather unsubtle message that Vlasic is not wanted at West Ham. I hope it all works out with Torino
But yeah, I'm hoping Vlasic does well enough to get the permanent move out there. He's a good player, but not a PL player, IMO.
Torino have finished in the bottom half of Serie A 8 times in the last 10 seasons and their record signing was £20m for Simone Verdi in 2020 but he's not played so far this season as he's looking to leave
Vlasic is arguably the most valuable player in the Torino squad
"Paquetá will be a different player to Jesse Lingard who played No10 for us, and Saïd Benrahma offers something else too"
I think that suggests Moyes sees Paqueta playing behind the striker rather than alongside Rice or Soucek
1.
He has 2 goals and 2 assists so far, in 14 league appearances for us. I think that feels low, but apparently in 20 games for Lyon in 2022, he scored 3. So he's actually performing about as expected in terms of goals.
2.
Moyes says we bought him in expecting 8-10 goals and 8-10 assists this season, so in that sense he's underperforming, though Moyes reckons he's settling in better.
3.
The article mentions how Soucek and Rice regressed as a midfield partnership because they are both box-to-box midfielders, and that leaves us exposed. But it also talks about how Rice is aware he needs to be more disciplined to allow Paqueta to get forward, which sort of implies that Rice doesn't think he needs to be disciplined when playing with Soucek? Idk, I found that part odd.
4.
These are his and Declan's touch maps from the weekend. Though he is "in a two", Paqueta very clearly has the licence to get forward and trouble defenders. I like that he's drifting out to the right a lot, because that will (hopefully) help Bowen out and give him more opportunities to get into the box.
I also agree that he's more disciplined. I think he knows Paqueta is better on the ball in more advanced positions, which Soucek isn't, so lets him do that. He probably also doesn't expect Paqueta to be as capable as Soucek so can't leave gaps. It's probably not just about discipline but more clearly defined roles.