Of the many thousands of people who have seen Michail Antonio's glorious strike for Jamaica in their 1-1 draw against the USA, one person in particular has shown an immense amount of interest, that person? His manager David Moyes, when asked about Antonio's goal what is Moyes likely to say?
Well it didn't take long for Moyes' opinion to become in the public domain, you would expect a compliment of some kind at least, but instead David Moyes will remind Antonio of "On many occasions my coaching staff and I have worked with Mikey on his finishing, he's getting better and better, but he still has a long way to go. He hasn't scored from outside the box since I've been here, it's something we have been working on and hopefully we will see a few more efforts from distance!".
Take a bow Mr Moyes AND coaching staff, Mikey is developing into one of the most feared strikers around, his unique 'gladiatorial' approach scares the hell out of defenders who invariably end up having to foul the man mountain to stop his progress. The problem for opposing teams is that unless they manage to foul Antonio well up the pitch, they are laying themselves open to Hammers metaphorical nuclear armoury, the set piece!
In the last year and a half, no other top flight team has scored as many goals from set pieces as West Ham, Hammers are SO good at them that the England football team had to request the 'loan' of Iron's set piece coach Paul Nevin to help them out!
As to Antonio, England's loss is Jamaica's gain, how many goals would he have scored against San Marino? That is all academic now as Southgate has missed his chance, but for Antonio his wonder strike has now set the bar and the coaching staff, especially his manager will be expecting more of the same!
When he was a relatively young pup, Michail's shots from distance were ALL row Z candidates at every club he played for, but he is a different 'beast' now. Through good coaching and sheer hard work Antonio has added significantly to his game and is capable of producing moments of astonishing strength and quality.
It has taken Michail Antonio his entire career to finally reach the level he is currently at, but with attainment comes expectation, so the pat on the back he might have expected may well be replaced by a collective kick up the back side from David Moyes, Chicken Kiev, Psycho and of course the Darth Vader of the touchline Paul Nevin, he who is always talking into his radio mic, the sinister one.
You let the cat out of the bag Big Mikey with 'that' goal, have a guess who is going to be doing extra shooting from distance practise at 'Goose Green' when they get back from International duty? Need a clue? Thighs the size of tree trunks and Crown Jewel Hamstrings are your starters for ten! - ED
