Cornet back if we survive?

[ClaretTony]

It's a no for me - some spectacular goals in his season with us alongside some very ordinary performances and a lot of games missed with injury. For whatever reasons, he's offered West Ham very little in two seasons.

[spt_claret]

I'm not sure I agree with a lot of the assessments about Cornet. He was a good player for us, however its arguable that his attributes and limitations left holes in our overall play that we never worked out how to adapt to, he didn't fit into 442 or 4411 and Dyche was reluctant to use 433 or 4231.

I could see a position for him in Kompany's team as the wide left in a 4231/433, playing a mix of Nathan Tella's right-sided role with a Lukas Podolski/Andre Schurrle and Thomas Muller type role. But I think there's bigger priorities we have than someone like Cornet.

People calling him a natural finisher- he really wasn't. He was a spectacular finisher but not instinctive or natural, he scored goals he had no business scoring and missed ones you'd always back a striker to score.

People calling him a great tricky dribbler- he wasn't. He was better than what we'd had for a while but I'd genuinely put Benson, Odobert, Koleosho, and Amdouni all ahead of him as dribblers, maybe Zaroury & McNeil, and going back further- Ings, Blake, Eagles, Elliott, Little.

People calling him pacy- he wasn't as pacey as you think. Quicker than Barnes/Jay/Wood but not a rapid player for the PL. He had a good touch and good technique but his greatest strength in running came from space finding. His clever runs and off-ball movement made him seem quicker and a better dribbler than he was because he was so good at that side specifically.

He was a very unorthodox player who made very good, clever runs and could find space in behind, in that regard he reminds me of Vitinho, or of superior players like Muller, or Schurrle. He wasn't an out and out striker, he wasn't a winger, he wasn't really an inverted winger/wide forward, he wasn't a second striker/deep forward/CAM/#10/whatever you want to call that role. He was a VERY distinctly European role, in particular Italian/German. That half-and-half-and-half position inbetween striker, winger, and second striker/CAM which doesn't really have a concrete name- maybe trequartista, inside forward, raumsdeuter. Point is his greatest strength was making unorthodox runs taking lines that players weren't used to, to find ways behind the defence. That's an attribute very useful in this system so for that reason I could see him playing wonderfully under Kompany, however his injury record and hot-cold performances would leave me concerned. We've got too many players already who can spend 90% of a match contributing little, or be hugely erratic, we need a bit more solidity and consistency in positions further back.

I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to a return IF the circumstances were right (stays fit, offload a few of the underwhelming/unfit competitors like Tresor, Redmond, Churlinov) but I wouldn't clamour for him back either.

[Quickenthetempo]

Very good striker of the ball and loved by the fans.

But the manager struggled to get him in a position within the team that suited him and the team.

We have the same problem now with Amdouni. So I don't think Vinny would sort things out for him.