Turn your mind back to the summer of 2019. West Ham had just come off their first season under Manuel Pellegrini, and their first top 10 finish in the London Stadium.
In come Pablo Fornals and Sebastian Haller, after enjoying good seasons on the continent, to add to last year’s marquee signing Filipe Anderson. Excitement is starting to build around West Ham for the first time since Dimitri Payet.
So why did Haller spend his time playing second fiddle to Michail Antonio before getting sold in January for half what West Ham paid for him?
Who did they buy?
Sebastian Haller came to London off the back of a prolific two-season spell with Eintracht Frankfurt as part of a formidable front three with Luka Jovic and Ante Rebic.
Jovic, Rebic and Haller proved one of the continent’s deadliest attacking trios. They managed 56 goals between them in all competitions.
Playing in this front three allowed Haller to show his strengths. Beyond the instinctive and ruthless finisher, he proved occasionally to be – very occasionally – at West Ham, he’s also an exceptional play maker.
The three worked incredibly well together, with Haller being the most creative of the bunch. He would often drop back into midfield to start attacks, making him a key part of build-up play whilst Jovic took a more traditional number nine role.
Haller got 0.31 assists per game in his final season in the Bundesliga to go along with his 0.52 goals per game. He led the team in total goal involvements and was right amongst the Bundesliga’s best.
How did the Hammers use him?
In short, Like Andy Carroll.
At six foot three, Haller is certainly an imposing centre forward, and like Carroll he scored an incredible overhead kick in claret and blue, but that’s where the similarities start and end.
Despite this not being where his strengths lie, Pellegrini was intent on using Haller as a target man. As a result, his role in build-up play was reduced to almost nothing, cutting out one of his biggest strengths.
Haller’s stats for ball retention did reach a career high at West Ham, getting dispossesed only 1.1 times per match in his full season there, however, as the turnover left his game, so did everything that made him so exciting in Germany.
Comparing 2018/19 to 2019/20, key passes per match were down from 1.3 to 0.8, his goals per game were halved and in 2019/2020 he only managed a single assist in the league, down from nine.
Moyes and Anotonio
The reintroduction of Moyes and the start of the 2020/21 saw yet more troubles for the striker. Where Pellegrini had misused Haller, Moyes seemed much more intent on not using him at all.
After project restart got things up and going again, it was clear that Moyes preferred part-time right back, part-time wrecking ball Antonio up top. And after he single-handedly dragged his team to safety, Haller’s position as West Ham’s most expensive ever bench warmer was settled.
Even with a few impressive goals once Antonio was injured, a Moyes squad that favours Fornals over Lanzini and Dawson over Diop, had no place for Haller and the writing was already on the wall for £45million man.
Future for Haller?
Despite falling way short of expectations you’d still be find it hard to find a football fan who would accuse Haller of being bad at football. Other than the odd old-timer in the pub reminiscing about Tony Cottee.
Anyone that saw Haller play at Frankfurt or FC Utrecht before that has seen what he’s capable of and what he brings to a team.
No, he’s not a target man, and he’s also probably not worth £45million, but his value is already being seen at Ajax. In January alone he managed six goal involvements in six games and has managed more assists that his whole 18 months with West Ham.
His fault or not, this was a couple years to forget for Haller just before entering his prime, and for West Ham, yet another striker added to the long list of forwards unable to get it going at West Ham.
