Lazio the winners from £27m West Ham deal as ex-Hammers target bests Taty Castellanos
To be fair to Taty Castellanos, while West Ham United’s January signing has his critics, five goals is a fairly respectable return for a striker still only four months into his English football career.
Castellanos came within the width of the woodwork of netting a sixth in Hammers colours during Saturday’s damaging 3-0 defeat by Brentford. Even on the days when his radar is a little off, the Argentina international is still in the position to get himself on the end of crosses.
Taty Castellanos will never be the most prolific striker. He scored only 22 times in nearly 100 matches for Lazio, after all.
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But, as they say, you would rather have a centre-forward getting in the right areas to miss chances than one who doesn’t get any chances at all.
Ahem, Pablo Felipe, we are looking at you.
Lazio faring well without West Ham United striker Taty Castellanos
In a leaked phone call which did little to calm tensions at the Stadio Olimpico recently, motormouth Biancocelesti president Claudio Lotito could be heard criticising Maurizio Sarri for his apparent inability to get more out of Castellanos.
Lotito can have few concerns regarding Sarri’s usage of Castellanos’ replacement, though.
Ironically enough, Tijjani Noslin was linked with a move to West Ham himself. This was two months before his former Biancocelesti teammate touched down in East London (Il Messaggero).
Sarri has spent much of the post-Castellanos era bemoaning the lack of a reliable number nine. Well, following Sunday’s 2-1 comeback victory over Cremonese, the former Chelsea, Napoli and Juventus boss may have realised that the answer was right under his nose all along.
Tijjani Noslin emergence shows the value of versatility
Noslin, primarily a winger during spells at Hellas Verona and Fortuna Sittard, played the second-half up top. In just 45 minutes on the pitch, he set up an equaliser for Gustaf Isaksen and then whipped a brilliant winner into the top corner.
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Speaking after a win which lifted Lazio up to eighth, Sarri would accept his share of the blame.
Not regarding Castellanos frustrating final few months in Rome – two Serie A goals in 11 games before West Ham made the questionable decision to splurge the best part of £30 million – but with Noslin’s belated emergence as a solution to Lazio’s long-standing striker problems.
“Noslin? Maybe it was also my fault,” the formerly chain-smoking, now clean-living Sarri admitted. “I struggled to define him. He can play many roles but he’s not specialised in any one.
“Then I realised that, in some games, he can make the difference.”
Noslin has now scored twice as many Serie A goals as Castellanos this season, despite starting only six games compared to the latter’s eight.
Who knows, perhaps Nuno will have a Eureka moment of his own regarding the increasingly-maligned Pablo. We can only hope.
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