When Aston Villa loan signing Robert Snodgrass criticised West Ham United boss Slaven Bilic he was mocked in some quarters.
West Ham boss Bilic is a man under intense pressure after the club’s dismal start to the new season.
Just two wins from the first 10 games leaves the Hammers sitting precariously above the relegation zone with the daunting visit of Liverpool looming on Saturday.
Bilic’s star has faded with West Ham fans and media alike and he has been heavily criticised all season.
Cracks started to show last season and they were widened when £10 million January signing Robert Snodgrass publicly criticised the Croatian on joining Villa during the summer.
Snodgrass failed to impress in any of his 16 appearances for the Hammers and failed to net a single goal, despite scoring seven and laying on a number of assists during the first half of the season with Hull.
After sealing a season-long loan move to Villa, the Scot claimed Bilic did not even know which position he played.
“I was coming on against (Manchester) City and he said ‘Where do you want to play, on the left or right?’,” Snodgrass told the Daily Record when he joined up with the Scotland squad this week.
“I thought ‘You have just signed me and I have played on the right or behind the striker at Hull City all season’.
“That was my debut and alarm bells were ringing right away. I found it very strange and I realised from the off that it wasn’t going to happen. Every time I played I was on the left. I don’t know why he did it. I joined as Dimitri Payet left and maybe it was a case of ‘you can play there’.
“But when I eventually did speak to him I said I thought he would have known I wasn’t a left-midfielder and that he must have watched me after signing me for that type of money.
“His answer was basically that when people are confident they can play anywhere.”
Snodgrass was criticised by some fans and pundits after the revelations with many claiming he was simply passing the buck for his own poor performances.
But does the form of West Ham striker Andre Ayew prove Snodgrass was right all along with the operative word being ‘striker’.
At Swansea, and Marseille before that, Ayew operated as striker in the true sense of the word in and around the box where he would use his key skill – reading where the ball was going to drop – to bag goals and provide assists.
He has been a flop since joining West Ham for a then club record £20.5 million from the Swans but all along the Ghanaian has been played completely out of position as a wide midfielder.
With Bilic short of options Ayew got the chance to impress in his proper position against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup and duly obliged, his two goals inspiring the Hammers to come back from 2-0 down to win 3-2.
He then followed that up with a superb solo strike in the 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace to prove that if Bilic uses players in their preferred positions they can perform for West Ham.
It also begs the question what Snodgrass might have offered the Hammers this season if kept and used in his correct position.
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