Jordan Hugill has been an unused substitute in West Ham United’s last two games.
Given Jordan Hugill’s lack of Premier League experience before he arrived at West Ham in a £10 million deal during the January transfer window, he may have always expected to be a peripheral figure during the opening weeks of his spell with the Hammers.
The former Preston North End striker featured as a substitute in the first two games that he was available for following his eight-figure move to the London Stadium.
But, while he has been selected in the matchday squad for the last two games, he has not played since the 2-0 win over Watford, staying on the bench for the games against Liverpool and Swansea City – both of which have ended in 4-1 defeats.
And while his omission against the Reds may not have been a huge surprise, his absence against the Swans should leave Hugill asking serious questions of David Moyes little over a month after his arrival.
He is yet to prove that he deserves to start, but surely Moyes had the perfect opportunity to give him nearly half an hour at the Liberty Stadium given the state of the game.
West Ham did have to use an early substitution due to the injury to Winston Reid, but Moyes only made two throughout the entire game so why was Hugill not brought on for the third change?
Swansea were 4-0 up after 63 minutes so the game was gone. There was nothing to lose from throwing the 25-year-old onto the pitch – unless he also picked up an injury – and it would have perhaps boosted his confidence ahead of the home game against Burnley this weekend when there was something to play for.
Instead, Moyes has risked damaging Hugill’s belief given that even when he had one change left to make in a game that was already lost, he did not feel it was the right time to get some more minutes in the striker’s legs.
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