Mauro Zarate -The return of the West Ham way?

Article by Brandon Freeman

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The recent arrival of Argentinean striker Mauro Zarate is bound to get hammers fans pulses racing, the 5ft 9in striker finished last season as the Primera Division’s top scorer with 13 goals and scored 20 in 35 matches in all competitions last season. Zarate certainly seems to known where the back of the net is and has previously played for Lazio, Internazionale and Birmingham city in the 2008/09 season, and looks to have the experience necessary to bring some much needed fire power to East London. But can he fill the boots of West Ham’s previous Argentinean hero Carlos Tevez? And more importantly, is Zarate the first step towards the new, quicker, more entertaining style of football West Ham fans have been demanding since returning to the Premier League?

Carlos Tevez arrived at West Ham in 2006 for an Undisclosed fee from Corinthians and went on to make 26 appearances for the hammers in the 2006/2007 season and became a hammers hero scoring 7 goals in the process, the most important coming in West Ham’s 1-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford which completed West Ham’s great escape under Alan Curbishley. So can Mauro Zarate make the impact that West Ham’s 2006/2007 hammer of the year did in his first season at Upton Park? I certainly believe that Zarate is a very skilful player who will surely add some much needed attacking flair to Big Sam’s side and I am sure that Zarate will adapt well to the Premier League having already player under West Ham owners David Sullivan and David Gold at Birmingham City.

However, Zarate’s success at West Ham will surely depend upon Sam Allardyce and whether he gives Zarate the freedom he needs to get goals and also whether Big Sam opts to play two strikers upfront, something which he has only done in the final stages of Premier League games since his arrival at the club. Hopefully Zarate’s arrival at West Ham, coupled with the imminent arrival of former striker Teddy Sheringham as the hammer’s new attacking coach will bring back some of the flair and attacking prowess West Ham once possessed before our relegation back in 2011. Nevertheless, the arrival of Mauro Zarate is only the beginning of a mass recruitment drive the owners will undertake in order to ensure that West Ham gain a top ten finish next season and a striker is only one of the many positions West Ham will need to add more excitement to. For me the key to West Ham success next season will be a change in the midfield and wide areas, which are in need of significant improvement. Unfortunately, I cannot see where players such as Kevin Nolan will fit into a quick, attacking side. Although, Nolan’s attacking abilities are undoubted he is a player who works well off of a target man but does appear to be a liability at times, offering little in defence and rarely running with the ball, or holding onto to it for a sustained period of time.

Therefore, with a mix of attacking flair and experienced engines such as Matt Taylor, Big Sam has a real job on his hands to build a team which possesses the perfect balance of brains and brawn in order to bring the West Ham way back to West Ham.

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