Javier Hernandez has joined West Ham United from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer transfer window.
Merson has also claimed that new signing Javier Hernandez is better coming off the substitutes’ bench.
Hernandez has joined the Hammers from German club Bayer Leverkusen in the summer transfer window for a fee reported by BBC Sport to be worth £16 million.
“Javier Hernandez is better coming off the bench, in my opinion, and West Ham are obviously going to start him,” Merson wrote on Skysports.com while predicting West Ham to finish 10th. “He made a huge impact coming on for Manchester United.
“If they can get Andy Carroll fit and they play the big man-small man combo, it could work really well. You wouldn’t want to be a defender against those two.”
West Ham failed to break into the top 10 of the Premier League last season and will be determined to fare better this campaign.
Given the signings that the Hammers have made so far in the summer transfer window, the fans should be optimistic of challenging for a place in the top eight or the top seven.
Merson’s prediction about West Ham finishing 10th could come true, but his comment about Hernandez better off the substitutes’ bench seems strange.
While it is true that the Mexico international scored a lot of goals and made significant impact as a substitute when he was at Manchester United, he has developed into a better striker over the past two seasons because he started regularly for Bayer in Germany.
During the 2015-16 campaign, the 29-year-old scored 17 goals and provided two assists in 25 starts in the Bundesliga for Bayer, according to WhoScored.
Hernandez scored 11 goals and provided three assists in 20 Bundesliga starts for Bayer in 2017-18, according to WhoScored.
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