Michael Owen lets rip at West Ham over signing of ‘last person you go and buy’ former Man Utd star

Michael Owen has heavily criticised West Ham’s decision to sign Aaron Wan-Bissaka from Manchester United over the summer after their 3-0 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday.

The Blues cruised to a comfortable victory at the London Stadium, a result that means Julen Lopetegui has lost all three of his games at home this season.

Wan-Bissaka, meanwhile, joined West Ham in a £15million deal from United in the summer after falling out of favour with Erik ten Hag but Owen believes the 26-year-old is not suited to Lopetegui’s current tactics.

“If you’re West Ham, if you’re the manager, the recruitment officer, whoever you are at West Ham, and you’re wanting a full-back to play in this, the last person you go and buy is Wan-Bissaka,” Owen told Premier League Productions.

“Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s brilliant, he’s probably the best right-back in terms of defensively in the country in the Premier League.

“But if you’re going to ask somebody to get up wide and high and come inside and play central, I don’t know why you’d get Wan-Bissaka.

“That’s not his game – his game is plugging the gaps, he’s not letting anything past, he’s a brilliant defender, he’s not brilliant going forward.

“Yet they [West Ham] are utilising him in totally the wrong way. It’s a very strange buy if they’re going to utilise him like that.”

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Defoe joins ‘weird’ Wan-Bissaka conversation

Former West Ham striker Jermain Defoe added: “Do you know what’s interesting, even looking at the goals and you see how much space Nicolas Jackson had, not just him, their forward players to run into, I can’t remember seeing Wan-Bissaka play like that ever.

“I can’t remember the amount of times I’ve seen him running back towards his own goal, he’s never probably played like that before.

“I think with him, you speak about one vs one defending, he probably has to stay in his position and probably make it a little bit difficult, but it was weird how high he played, in certain moments he was playing inverted inside.”

Wan-Bissaka, who made 190 appearances for United,  has started the last three games for West Ham after being on the bench for the opening two fixtures.

West Ham in hunt for Egypt forward as centre-back rumours grow

In other West Ham news, Eintracht Frankfurt striker Omar Marmoush is keen to secure a Premier League move in 2025, sources have confirmed to TEAMtalk, with Liverpool and Arsenal among those linked and with Crystal Palace and West Ham also keen.

The 25-year-old striker plundered an impressive 17 goals in 43 matches for the Bundesliga side last season to bring him on to the radar of a number of top Premier League sides, including the Hammers.

Meanwhile, former Liverpool defender Joel Matip is ‘favouring a return’ to England and Fulham and Bournemouth have joined the Hammers in the race, while the demands Matip’s camp are making have also been revealed.

Free agents can be signed and registered outside of the transfer window and a recent report from the Daily Mirror, Matip is in line to grace the Premier League once again.

They stated Matip is weighing up offers from top-flight English sides and he is ‘favouring a return’ to the Premier League.

IN FOCUS – Wan-Bissaka no attacking weapon

Checking through the stats of Wan-Bissaka’s career so far, it’s very clear that he is no real threat as an attacking force from the right-back position.

His defensive qualities have always stood out but that ended up costing him his place at Old Trafford as Ten Hag wanted more of a threat from the right-back position than he was capable of offering.

It’s now up to Lopetegui to find the role best suited for the former Palace man going forward.

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