Sebastien Haller’s hat trick for West Ham in their pre-season friendly victory over Ipswich Town on Tuesday should act as a huge confidence booster for the French striker.
Seven goals last season was the sum of his debut Premier League campaign after a £45million switch from Eintracht Frankfurt. Not terrible by any stretch but he didn’t set the world on fire either.
Haller was the victim of playing in a terrible team when Manuel Pellegrini was in charge and the Chilean didn’t utilise the striker at all properly. Playing Haller as a lone frontman was never going to work and having seen Haller excel with two partners around him for Frankfurt, Pellegrini should have known better.
When Pellegrini eventually saw the light and played Michail Antonio up top with Haller, West Ham beat Southampton on a chilly night in Southampton and the Frenchman scored the winner. Not really rocket science, was it.
Pellegrini then went back to playing Haller on his own and two games later was sacked as manager to be replaced by David Moyes.
The Scotsman doesn’t get a pass either as he too played Haller by himself for far too long. Haller netted a wonder goal against Bournemouth in Moyes’ first game back in charge of the club but he too was loathed to play anyone with Haller.
It was only once the Hammers had signed Jarrod Bowen on transfer deadline day that Moyes saw the light, with Bowen playing on the right and a change of formation ensued with Michail Antonio on the left of the front three.
Antonio, as we know, would go on to replace Haller up front after lockdown, score eight goals and effectively keep West Ham in the division as a post-lockdown injury to Haller restricted his appearances.
Heading into the summer, Haller’s future was uncertain. Moyes needs to trim the wage bill, Haller is up there in the top echelon of earners at the club and had only scored seven goals last season. Antonio had usurped him thanks to his post-lockdown exploits and questions were certainly being asked about the club-record signings long-term plan in east London.
It’s easy to write off a player after one season, a little too easy in fact, and Haller had been in some quarters. However, the return of Grady Diangana from his loan spell away at West Bromwich Albion last season could be a gamechanger for Haller.
The duo combined twice for two of Haller’s three goals at Portman Road and the Frenchman waxed lyrical about the young English winger in the aftermath: “It’s nice for us to have a kind of player like Grady,” Haller said.
“Everyone knows the quality he has and then he went on loan to West Brom and everyone knows he performed pretty well. We are all happy to have him here and we are going to try to use his quality and strength, me most of all.
“Hopefully he will be giving me even more assists in the future.”
Haller was starved of service for the majority of last season before lockdown arrived, then he lost his place. But with a bonafide winger in the side in Diangana, Haller could turn the corner in 2019/20 and become the 20-goal a season man the club desperately needs and has been looking for.
He will have an Antonio-shaped object in the way unless Moyes switches things up in the final third, which can't be ruled out. It's a tantalising prospect.
