Westham player slammed on Sky Sports, needs to be hauled off in West Ham v Aston Villa.
Julen Lopetegui must make his first brave call as West Ham United manager and haul off Guido Rodriguez at half-time against Aston Villa.
The summer signing was handed an instant full debut for Saturday’s (17 August) Premier League clash at the London Stadium.
However, the Argentina international struggled to get going at all and West Ham risked being well behind prior to a leveller against the run of play.
Amadou Onana put the Villans ahead early on and they missed a number of chances to extend their lead before Lucas Paqueta’s penalty leveller.
Still, Lopetegui will be concerned about how overrun his side were in the centre of the pitch, with Rodriguez in particular struggling so far.
Alan Smith criticises Guido Rodriguez display for West Ham
As Alan Smith said live on Sky Sports’ coverage [17 August, 6:02pm], Rodriguez was “chasing shadows” for the vast majority of the half.
Smith added: “It’s been hard for him to make any sort of impression in midfield. It’s been a really difficult debut in this first half.”
As per Sofascore, the World Cup winner made just one defensive action. That compares to three for Vladimir Coufal alongside him in midfield.
Rodriguez also registered no blocks and no tackles as the opening 45 minutes rather passed him by.
The 30-year-old completed just 81 per cent of his 26 attempted passes, meanwhile, misplacing five of those.
This is not to say Rodriguez is going to be a flop, of course, but Lopetegui cannot take any risks and it makes sense to change things at the break.
The Irons are a little fortunate to be on level terms and cannot afford a repeat of the opening half an hour or so in the second period.
