Lanzini injury setback highlights West Ham’s failure to sign creativity

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Manuel Lanzini has suffered a setback in his recovery from a knee injury, which further highlights a key problem for West Ham.

Adrian and Manuel Lanzini of West Ham United take a look around the stadium prior to the Premier League match against Newcastle United.

There is bad news for West Ham United as manager Slaven Bilic reveals Manuel Lanzini has suffered an injury setback and may not return until after the next international break.

Lanzini has managed just 45 minutes of first team action this campaign after picking up a knee injury in pre-season and then aggravating it during the 3-0 Premier League defeat to Newcastle United.

The Hammers have Tottenham Hotspur at home this weekend and then host Swansea City the following week, before a gap in the fixture list for World Cup qualifiers and then a return to league action with a trip to Burnley on October 14.

Manuel Lanzini of West Ham United shoots at goal during the Premier League match against Newcastle United.

“Lanzini is as close as he was a couple of days before he started to train before Newcastle. He is still a little bit away from starting training,” Bilic was quoted by football.london.

“He’s doing everything but he is not training with us as in one movement he still feels it. Only in one movement and we don’t want to risk. He’s going to be definitely be ready after the international break. Will he be ready before, for the Swansea game? Maybe.

“But after the international break he will definitely be playing. Hopefully he will be OK for the Swansea game but is it 100 per cent? No it is not.”

Slaven Bilic, manager of West Ham United.

While an injury setback is difficult to plan for, not signing any further creativity in midfield in case of this eventuality wasn’t, but the East Londoners failed to do so and in turn have become somewhat one-dimensional in the middle.

Five different players have already featured in central midfield for Bilic so far this term, but none have recorded an assist and according to WhoScored, only Mark Noble has managed to average more than one key pass a game.

The absence of Lanzini and any other creative source to fill in for him is maybe why West Ham have failed to score in three of their five league outings so far in 2017/18 and with the Argentine set to be sidelined for at least another month, that is a problem that doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon.