Mubama

[Come On You Irons]

"Let's face it. He was awful when he came on last night. Supporters clamber for youngsters to be given a chance, but they must seize their opportunities and prove their worth when given game time. Mubama fluffed his lines last night. He's clearly not good enough. Looks like a League 1 level player to me."

[El Scorchio]

"There's always a risk, think Chelsea with Salah, KDB and Lukaku. Owch. You have to say though, we haven't released any young player and then regretted it for a long time now. Obvs no idea with anyone gone in the last few seasons, but all i can really think of who had a decent top flight career are Bullard (who was never getting in ahead of the likes of Carrick and Cole) and Stanislas. Really pleased for the lads at Luton, but they've made it in a very unconventional way coming up the divisions and I'm not overly sure we'd have any use for them aside from the fringes of the squad. We've probably got it about right."

[El Scorchio]

"There's always a risk, think Chelsea with Salah, KDB and Lukaku. Owch. You have to say though, we haven't released any young player and then regretted it for a long time now. Obvs no idea with anyone gone in the last few seasons, but all i can really think of who had a decent top flight career are Bullard (who was never getting in ahead of the likes of Carrick and Cole) and Stanislas. Really pleased for the lads at Luton, but they've made it in a very unconventional way coming up the divisions and I'm not overly sure we'd have any use for them aside from the fringes of the squad. We've probably got it about right."

[the exile]

The big question for me is how can it be that our first team and our U21s play two totally different kinds of football. That indicates two things: the first is that Moyes doesn't particularly care about the youths and has very little interest and involvement with them; and the second is to raise the question as to how we can ever expect any of our promising young players to transition smoothly into the first team set-up.

[Manuel]

"South - Over recent years our players who are loaned out always seem to go to league 1 clubs, I could be wrong though, not that it means a Championship club won't come in for him, but I doubt they would have seen enough of him to think he could be useful in that league, which is a pretty high standard. IIRC he was meant to be loaned out in the summer but Moyes wanted to keep him, took him out to Aus and it was looking good for him, but it just hasn't happened. So Toney did the rounds a bit like Kane did, but one big difference between Toney and Mubama is that when Toney went back to Brentford I assume they were in the Championship at that point, making it easier for him to establish himself."

[southbankbornnbred]

"Manuel - you might well be right, mate. I'm not sure how many Championship clubs are looking for that sort of striker at the moment, although there must be one or two? I just fear a situation where we let him go in the summer and he thrives. Toney was at Newcastle at 19, btw. They loaned him out to the likes of Barnsley and Scunthorpe. Then they shipped him out permanently to Peterborough. That was probably the making of him. There's always that risk, isn't there? And we can't cover all options indefinitely. Honestly speaking, I just haven't seen enough of him to know how good he is."

[El Scorchio]

"Yeah it's a bit harsh to be slagging him off already. he's not been put in the best positions to succeed, although he doesn't look like he's got the joy and energy he had last season. Perhaps he's fed up. But it is fascinating that there's always a massive cry to use the youth players, and then after 5-6 games, people just start slagging them off and saying they aren't good enough. Agree with Mad Dog though- much rather have Mubama on the pitch than Ings at this point."

[Russ of the BML]

Kudus--------------------Mubama----------------------Bowen -----------------------------Paqueta -------------------JWP-----------------Alvarez Ermerson---------Aguerd----------Zouma-----------Coufal --------------------------------Areola--------------------- You play Mubama in that team and he doesn't score goals then you may have a point.

[Manuel]

"Southbank - I'm really not sure a Championship club would take him tbh? It's a tricky situation, even more so as he is meant to score goals, it's really hard to predict how it will go for him. Where the hell was Toney when he was 19?"

[southbankbornnbred]

"Still don't know enough about Divin to know if he will make it in our first team longer-term. But much of the feedback is that the kid has a lot of talent and is a hard worker. I'd hate to think we'd let him go and he'd do an Ivan Toney and thrive elsewhere. Seems to me the best thing for him would be to go on loan for at least three months to a Championship or higher League One club, get a set of 10-15 first team games under his belt - all properly recorded etc so that our lot can study him at first team level. Then make a decision. Mind you, isn't he out of contract at the end of the season? We have to make a swift-ish decision."

[OneAll]

"he needs a couple games in a row starting , also with our best players then we will see how good he is , how you are judging him in 20 mins here and there when he is isolated up top shows you have no ball knowledge"

[Russ of the BML]

"Come On You Irons: With respect, being a striker in a football team that has only 30% of the ball is a challenge. Add to that fact that by the time Mubama had come on, Moyes has already decided a point was what he wanted and we were set up to allow them the ball and to defend virtually on the edge of our own box. At no time whilst he was on the pitch did we break, or play it into the channels, or even break their lines through the middle to feed the ball onto a run he made. He came on too late and was clearly given instructions to defend from the front, which in this game meant he was running about chasing in his own half. I would suggest it was akin to trying to put a fire out with a piece of wood. It's not the woods fault it gets burnt. How any West Ham fan can slate Mubama for his performance against Brighton is beyond me., It just seems like some sort of perverse attention seeking."

[Coffee]

"I haven't seen him play, but the OP is ridiculous. A young player has to learn. He's not going to get everything right all the time at that age. He needs to play regularly with those he can learn from, and get support and tuition from those in charge. To say that he fluffed his lines last night and is therefore no good is about absurd as you can get, the more so when so many people on here have called for him to get game time. Give him time, even if that means tolerating occasional crap."

[Pentonville]

"I recall only recently Toni Martinez being touted as the next big thing. Slower than a week in jail he was. Went nowhere. In my humble opinion, Mubama.is Joseph Average."

[goose]

"i can remember one loose pass, but aside from that he was no better or worse than the rest. i bet if you looked at where he touched the ball there won't be many in the brighton half. he spent 99% of this time 20 yards from his own goal. he might well be shit, but he deffo isn't maradona so i'm not sure what more he was meant to do?"

[Nutsin]

"Mubama is not the answer ffs! He came on and tried, didn’t offer much of an outlet, not what you would call a presence. Perhaps he’ll blossom into a Championship level striker at some point but he is not now and never will be a Prem striker."

[Willtell]

He does play with better players around him relatively at least. I understand our PL2 team are top class and don’t play Moyesball. I’m told they attack…

[Yorkammer]

"""he was brought on in an awful game with shit players around him"" Do you think he usually plays with better players around him?"

[threesixty]

"It was odd with him. Didn’t really see anything of him off the ball or on it. Not really that fast, not really that skill full on the ball. And more importantly doesn’t seem to know how to close down defenders to get them to make mistakes. All of which I’m sure he can learn. But I doubt he’d be doing his learning here because I don’t think we can afford it the way Moyes plays. That’s the 2nd youth striker I’ve seen from us that doesn’t seem to be at it. What gets me is that why are we not training youth team players to enter into our 1 st team like other clubs. It feels like there isn’t anyone who can deputise in a real way for us."

[Vexed]

Bit harsh to devote a thread to coating off Mubama - he was a bit crap but there are plenty more worthy of a coating. Mitigating factors being that he was brought on in an awful game with shit players around him in a game we werent even trying to win. However I thought his effort was a bit poor at times. Needs a loan somewhere.

[Iron Duke]

"He has looked out of his depth the last few games. I don’t think he has been managed well at all. He always looked a bit raw though, and now probably needs to go out on loan. Hopefully he’ll start on Saturday before going somewhere on loan for some proper game time."

[SnarestoneIron]

"Manuel 1:57 Wed Jan 3 Playing in the lower leagues should toughen him up and show that he can play against men rather than boys. I think forwards more than most positions does them good. Defoe, Kane, both went on loan, and did ok."

[Mad Dog]

Maybe not But given the choice of him or ings I know who I prefer and it isn't the 125k pw hair transplant boy. Last night erling haaland pr mbappe would have looked shit without any service. Moyes does NOT know how to use forwards

[Mad Dog]

Maybe not But given the choice of him or ings I know who I prefer and it isn't the 125k pw hair transplant boy. Last night erling haaland pr mbappe would have looked shit without any service. Moyes does NOT know how to use forwards

[Willtell]

"Blimey you lot are really harsh. The odds are he won't make a PL player but you need to judge him on the fact that Haller, Scamacca and Ings are all multi-capped internationals and they can't play Moyesball either. What did anyone expect from a 19 years old? Collect the ball run 50m beat 3 defenders and score all by himself? I saw one moment where he got penalised for pushing a defender after instantly controlling the ball on his toe. I would say that he has talent but no-one knows for sure whether he will make PL level yet."

[Side of Ham]

If he’d bust a gut the shape would have been compromised and Moyes would have bollock’d him as the decision was made to protect the point….even Bowen was average last night….