Michail Antonio has backed struggling teammate to find his form by the end of the season.

When it comes to West Ham’s all time Premier League top goal scorer, you can never tell what is going to come out of his mouth. His podcast with Callum Wilson has been extremely unpopular with both fans and the club. Amidst all the controversial statements though, he has a tendency to show what a good teammate he is. He always backs his fellow Hammers and once again he has given his two cents on one controversial player; Kalvin Phillips.

Unfortunately, Phillips off the pitch quality has not translated to on the pitch. It feels like every time he has put on a West Ham shirt he has made a mistake. Most recently, he got two yellow cards in the matter of minutes against Nottingham Forest leading to his dismissal.

While some have already got on his back by claiming that he is not good enough, others have acknowledged that his lack of playing time at Manchester City has had a massive impact on his match sharpness. Antonio falls in the latter category, stating that ”the guy’s not played for a year and a half, so you’ve got to expect mistakes, you’ve got to expect a player being rusty, you’ve got to expect him trying to get up to the speed of the Prem because he’s not played for a year and a half.”

“So, these things are bound to happen. It’s a good thing that it’s happening now and it’s not happening at the end of the season because once it’s happening at the end, then there’s certain things you can actually say about him as a player. But right now, he’s getting it now and early because all the rust, he needs to get rid of that so he can bring out the quality that he has.”

With the woeful form they’re in, our Irons really could do with Phillips being at his best but, as our No.9 said, we have to give him time. There is no question that he could be a crucial player for us as we enter the latter stages of the season, but this is not going to happen without patience and support. Every single West Ham fan should be showing their support for him in order for us to get him back to the levels we know he can be at.