The West Ham United defender has had a great few weeks off the bench.
West Ham United have a super sub but it is not a player they would have been expecting at the start of the campaign.
While the Hammers brought in more attacking quality with Javier Hernandez and Marko Arnautovic arriving this summer, it is a left-back who is being inexplicably left out of the starting XI that is proving his worth from the bench.
Arthur Masuaku has not started a league game for West Ham since the opening weekend of the season, when the Hammers lost 4-0 to Manchester United before it became clear that was Jose Mourinho’s team’s scoreline of choice.
Since then Masuaku has been overlooked in favour of Aaron Cresswell, despite the latter struggling for weeks and in desperate need of a rest.
For now Bilic perseveres with Cresswell, but West Ham are benefiting from Masuaku’s unlikely new role as a super sub.
The fan favourite delivered a brilliant cross for West Ham’s second goal in their 3-2 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, doing more in 16 minutes than Cresswell managed all game, and he followed that up with the crucial assist as the Hammers scored a last-gasp winner against Swansea City on Saturday.
He may not be scoring the goals himself, but Masuaku’s importance to West Ham’s last two strikes has been huge and if he keeps this up he may have found a new calling as the go-to man from the bench.
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