There seems to be a lot of Boa Morte love around at the moment. The Boa has been jeered at pretty much ever since he joined the club, but seems to be enjoying a bit of renaissance in support.
As a man of moderation in all things, I feel that he was probably under-appreciated when our beloved support were burning effigies of him in the BML. Now that everyone’s in love with him I think he’s being overrated – let’s not forget that the man can barely pick out a pass.
I think you can often split footballing performance skills into two groups – the technical and the instinctive. They supplement each other. Boa Morte has most of the technical skills that you would want in a player, but when it comes to anything instinctive or inspired poor old Luis seems to have lost his abilities somewhere around the turn of the century. Shooting, crossing, weighting a pass, making the right decision in the final third – all utterly hopeless. Apparently he once got 18 goals in one season – mentioning that in his footballing CV now seems utterly fraudulent.
What he has always done for West Ham is run around a lot and be a nuisance. I think he was crucial during the tricky period where everyone was injured under Curbishley – Curbs stuck him behind Carlton Cole and just let him niggle the opposition, and it got us results. At the end of last season where the wheels came off, Boa was our best players for a while because he got stuck in. It’s the same this year – everyone else is tiring and has one eye on the Summer, but Boa has kept at it and looked like a tiger in our midfield.
And the Boa has proven versatile. He’s played across the midfield, up front and even as a full-back. His recent stint has been on the right-wing – I don’t think he played there under Curbs at all. He’s one of those players for whom the versatility is a curse – it robs him of the chance to settle down into one position. Spector suffers from the same problem, as has Faubert. While the fans criticise these players for their patchy form, they fail to understand that the player is basically being shoved in whatever hole needs filling in the team – not many players have ever managed to do that and perform at their best. Who thought Behrami was a great purchase when he was playing at right-back? Nobody!
But is the Boa worth another year? I think it’s a tough question. If everyone is fit I don’t see a place for him in the first-team, and I don’t think he’s ever been much of a match-changing sub. He’s a battling player who fills a gap in the side, rather than somebody you essentially pick on merit. I guess we see who’s interested, what the offers are, and take a pragmatic decision based on that.
If we want to improve as a squad, there’s no place for him – if we accept that it’s unlikely that we will improve, then we need him for another year.
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