West Ham United are heading into the new Premier League season full of hope following an impressive first campaign under the management of Manuel Pellegrini.
However, they face the toughest ask possible on the opening day when they travel to the Etihad to face champions Manchester City. West Ham are priced at an incredible 11/1 by the best football tipsters to win against Pep Guardiola’s team – amazingly long odds considering it is, to all intense and purposes, a two-horse race.
They seem to be after a new defensive midfielder this summer. They’ve recently been linked with moves for both Gary Medel and Yann M’Vila.
These two players have both plied their trade in England before, and a quick look at both men’s CV’s shows that the Hammers’ choice should be a simple one.
Firstly let’s look at Medel’s time in England. He spent the 2013/14 season playing for Cardiff City. The Bluebirds were relegated at the end of that campaign, but Medel did a decent job for the Welsh outfit, and he earned himself a move to Inter the next year.
During his time at Cardiff, he made 2.3 tackles per game, 1.9 interceptions per game. These are decent numbers for a holding midfielder at a struggling Premier League side, but when comparing them to M’Vila’s stats, you can see why he is the better choice.
The Frenchman’s time at Sunderland trumps the Chilean’s time at Cardiff as he made 2.7 tackles per game and 2.3 interceptions.
It’s not just defensive contributions where the 29-year-old puts up better numbers either. He provided four assists that season compared to Medel’s one, and he also made 1.2 key passes per game, which is much better than the 31-year-old’s 0.2.
It seems that M’Vila is more suited to the English game as he outperformed Medel in almost every way.
It’s also easy to see that he is a much more dynamic player as he put up solid offensive numbers as well as defensive output.
If West Ham are looking for a purely defensive player, then the Saint-Etienne man is the clear choice, but if they did sign the Frenchman he would also provide something going forward whereas Medel wouldn’t.
Adding the right man into their midfield would make the best football tips suggesting the Hammers can qualify for Europe this season (priced at 15/2 in most places) very good value.
