Manor Solomon’s West Ham struggles can be explained with one obvious reason

If you want to work out why things are not clicking for Manor Solomon at West Ham United, maybe you have to look a bit further back.

Not only back at his terrific season at Leeds, but also further back in a literal sense. Further back on the pitch.

Junior Firpo, the all-action left-back who blossomed alongside Manor Solomon at Elland Road, ended the 2024/25 Championship campaign with four goals and ten assists to his name. At West Ham United, in the present day, Ollie Scarles has one assist and no goals in his last 43 games across all competitions.

And while Morato has made a good impression on loan from Nottingham Forest, he is very much a centre-back moonlighting as a full-back.

This is not to say the Brazilian isn’t capable in that role – he provided a lovely cross for Jarrod Bowen’s opener against Wrexham last month – but his broad-shouldered, 6ft 4ins frame certainly creates the impression of a square peg in a round hole.

Last week, Solomon reflected on his partnership with Morato down the left-hand side. A partnership he feels is developing by the week.

“I think it has taken me and Morato a bit of time to adapt to playing with each other,” Solomon told the club’s official website. “But that relationship is definitely building, as is my link-up with the other attackers here.”

The issue, though, is that Solomon and Morato looks like a marriage of convenience rather than the match-made-in-heaven partnership that was he and Firpo.

You would struggle to find a winger and a full-back better suited to each other. Solomon tended to drift infield while Firpo bombed on outside him.

We have seen shades of this at West Ham. See, for instance, Mohamadou Kante’s crashing finish in that Wrexham whipping. Solomon picked up the ball just inside the Wrexham half. Kante made a burst in behind, and the Israel international picked out with a lovely clipped pass.

This was the sort of through-ball Solomon often threaded through for Firpo when Leeds won the Championship title with 100 points in 2024/25. Firpo’s speed and uber-attacking style would stretch the opposition defence, allowing Solomon to drift into central positions and do what he does best.

Solomon contrasts markedly to Crysencio Summerville, his predecessor both at Leeds and West Ham, because he is more of a playmaker than a one-v-one specialist. He doesn’t quite have Summerville’s explosive acceleration, relying instead upon his technical qualities in tight spaces.

At West Ham, because he doesn’t have a left-back like Firpo bombing on and creating space for him in the final third, Solomon has often found himself doubled-up on. Marked out of the game, at times, with the opposition deciding against putting the same sort of pressure on Morato or Scarles in the knowledge that neither are particularly effective in the final third.

Morato tries his best, but his presence does not drag defenders away from Solomon like Firpo’s did at Leeds. This means that Solomon occasionally finds himself up against two defenders when he picks up the ball, forced to go backwards or run into traffic without the sort of outlet he was used to at Elland Road.

West Ham suffered a 3-2 home defeat by Southampton last time out, dropping to third in the Championship table as a result.

Nuno Espirito Santo hauled Solomon off midway through the second half, the summer signing from Tottenham having completed zero dribbles, one shot, and a single accurate cross during his 63 minutes on the pitch.

Calls for a change to Nuno’s XI will only grow ahead of Saturday’s clash with West Brom. Edvin Austbo has looked more effective than Solomon in recent outings, probably because he has the turn of pace required to open up an opposition defence in a one-v-one situation.

Austbo is less refined than his rival, but better suited to beating his marker head-on without the need for an attack-minded left-back to create space for him.

“Over the last few weeks I was struggling a bit with illness after being away with the national team, so I wasn’t in the best shape and I didn’t have the best energy,” Solomon protested. “Now I feel that’s behind me, and I’m ready to help the team at my maximum for sure.”

Solomon said all this before recording another forgettable performance against Southampton. Excuses are wearing thin, with Austbo breathing down his neck.

And unless West Ham go into the market for a more Firpo-esque left-back in January – don’t count out Adama Boiro just yet, by the way – it is possible that we will never see the best of the former Leeds wing wonder in claret and blue.