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Pablo Fornals has the skill, vision, and work rate to be West Ham's #10 in 20-21. In this tweet thread I will
In the 19-20 Season, Fornals started 13 matches as a LM and 7 matches as a CM/CAM. In his two seasons at Villarreal Fornals started 12 matches at LM and 39 matches as a CM/CAM.
However, these stats do not represent the player that West Ham signed from Villarreal. In both seasons at Villarreal, Fornals averaged 1.73 Key Passes per 90 minutes played compared to his 0.84 KP/90 in 2020.
His stats from 17-19 are eerily similar to Lanzini’s from 16-18. Both players registered 97 key passes in the two seasons and Fornals averaged 1.87 KP/90 from CAM and Lanzini registered 1.86 KP/90 from CAM.
This season, Fornals showed the glimpses of brilliance and that he has the vision, creativity, and passion to perform admirably as West Ham’s Future #10. Let's first start by looking at his two goals for West Ham.
In both goals, Fornals positions himself in the center of the 18 yard box and connects with with cross first time. Both goals have an xG of 0.09
With two matches left, Fornals is tied for the club lead with 5 assists. Here, Fornals plays a beautiful through ball to Bowen who scores his first goal of many for West Ham.
While a simple headed assist, his positioning is what creates the space for Haller to be unmarked as Southampton players ball watch.
Arguably his most impressive assist of the season.
While not officially credited with an assist as it took a deflection, this pass to Antonio was his most important contribution of the season
And finally, the Yarmolenko goal against Chelsea. He starts 5 yards ahead of Rice, has a critical pass to Antonio, puts his head down and sprints to get in position for a pass or rebound.
He will be 24 when the 20-21 season begins and had an above average first season for a young player in the PL. He also seems to genuinely love playing for West Ham (not that that matters when talking about stats haha)
