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11th Sep 2017

People were very confused about Javier Hernandez’s position for West Ham

Paul Moore

Bilic might be asked about this.

During the summer transfer window, it was clear that West Ham were desperately trying to sign a marque striker.

Giroud, Sturridge, Iheanacho and Batshuayi were just some of the names that were linked with a move to the club and with good reason. During the 2016/17 campaign, the Irons only managed to score 47 league goals throughout the season.

In order to cure their goal drought, Bilic turned to a striker that’s well known by English football fans, Javier Hernández.

During his time at Old Trafford, Chicharito became a firm fan favourite and managed to find the back of the net 59 times in 158 appearances. When Louis Van Gaal took over, it was clear that the Dutch manager didn’t fancy Chicharito’s style of play and turfed him out to Bayer Leverkusen.

Like all good strikers, the Mexican continued to score goals as he notched 39 goals in 76 matches for the Bundesliga outfit.

Since moving to West Ham, Hernandez has scored twice in the league – both coming in the 3-2 defeat to Southampton – but with Bilic’s side in desperate need of their first win of the season, the Croatian’s tactics against Huddersfield aren’t exactly playing to Chicharito’s best qualities as a striker.

West Ham lined up against the Premier League new boys with the Mexican starting out wide as a left-winger.

Plenty of people were left perplexed by this tactical swap.

https://twitter.com/_antxnio_/status/907300048517652481

https://twitter.com/HammersHS/status/903229101326172160

https://twitter.com/sukh_h/status/907325113548275717

https://twitter.com/SeanSweeney09/status/907303945906921472

The decision to play Pablo Zabaleta as a wing-back has also raised eyebrows.

Mmm…