West Ham United striker Michail Antonio has made a really honest admission when speaking to The Athletic.
Michail Antonio has just returned from injury for West Ham, after he picked up a hamstring problem whilst away on international duty with Jamaica in back in November.
The 33-year-old £100k-a-week striker has been open to leaving the London Stadium on numerous ocassions over the past year or so.
However, Antonio remained at the London Stadium in the end, and he is clearly still a very important player for David Moyes.
The Jamaica international has been in fine form for West Ham over our last two games, and if he can maintain the levels that he’s shown recently, he’ll be an incredibly useful player for us between now and the end of the season.
He was very unlucky not to score or bag an assist against Freiburg – he was the man of the match for me at the London Stadium that night. And then he got on the score-sheet against Aston Villa on Sunday.
The fact that he hasn’t gone away on international duty this week is a big bonus for us. We need him fully focused on West Ham over the next two months.
Antonio has been speaking about the season so far with the Hammers, and something he said may just surprise the Hammers fans…
West Ham striker Michail Antonio makes extremely honest admission
The former Nottingham Forest man has spoken to the Athletic about his season so far with the Hammers.
Antonio has bagged just three goals and two assists in 21 games in all competitions for West Ham this season (Transfermarkt).
That’s quite simply not good enough for a man of his calibre, and he has admitted that himself:
“I’ve been out for quite a while and before that I wasn’t giving the best performances, so it’s nice to be back out there performing the way I am now. At the start of the season, I started well, then I faded out with bad performances, I’ve got to be honest. Then, coming back from injury, I was a bit rusty. Now I’m showing the quality I have again. I’m not the prettiest footballer, but I know who I am and I understand that. When I step on the field I know what I bring and I know what I can do. And at the end of the day, every manager sees the positives I can bring to the team and ends up starting to use me.”
Antonio us usually supremely confident and has garnered a reputation for himself as someone who always seems to say the wrong things at the wrong time!
Credit where credit’s due though, he can’t be faulted with his comments above. It was so refreshing to hear him admit just how poor he has been for us this season.
On the flip-side though, when he’s playing well he is utterly unplayable, and there isn’t a single defender who would relish playing against him.
Hopefully we see the best of West Ham striker Michail Antonio between now and the end of the 2023/24 campaign.
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