West Ham snatched victory at the death over Swansea at the weekend, with manager Slaven Bilic’s late double substitution proving to be an inspired one.
The under-fire boss brought in the duo of Arthur Masuaku and Diafra Sakho on the 78th minute, and they both combined to provide the injury-time goal.
Following their heroics, ex-England international and pundit Jamie Redknapp suggested that the 2 squad players should be afforded the luxury of starting the Hammers’ next game.
Starting Sakho means one of Javier Hernandez and Andy Carroll must be dropped if the manager is to stick with a 2-man striking system.
However, on current form and in terms of quality and prowess, the Senegalese is trailing the striking duo.
They are better and way more clinical than he’s, and he must work hard to retain his role as a consistent super sub in order to prove a point.
Aaron Cresswell isn’t particularly in the form of his life at the moment, nevertheless, he’s a better defender than the error-prone Masuaku.
The Congolese played briefly as a left winger in place of Andre Ayew, but he’s far from a winger despite his decent crosses.
Masuaku and Sakho no doubt did well to relieve pressure on the club and its manager, but it’s only sentimental to clamour for starting berths as rewards for doing what they are paid to do – help the team.
The duo remains quality players, but the onus is on them to prove they have what it takes to break into Bilic’s starting XI.
They don’t deserve to start against Burnley only off the back of helping to secure all 3 points last time out.
