The big summer signing, Gustavo Hamer has lived up to the billing that his fee demanded. A majestic passer of the ball who isn’t scared to throw his weight around without it, Gustavo Hamer’s game is defined by his sheer force of personality. The upside of that is that he is someone who constantly wants to influence the game, which can see him control matches when the team is playing well or else act as an outlet for the rest of the team when we aren’t. The downside is that he is easy for opponents to wind up – which has seen him sent off once and often substituted when on a yellow – as well as being a little too eager at times to force things in possession when the simple option will do.
The reason why Gustavo Hamer is at Coventry City is because there are deficiencies in his game to be ironed out. The move to playing with three in central midfield appears to have benefitted Hamer by reducing the creative and defensive burden on him, meaning he feels less of a need to do absolutely everything in central midfield. However, while he has shown he can contribute the odd goal and assist by playing in a more attacking midfield role, it reduces his opportunity to orchestrate things with his range of passing from a deep midfield position. In an ideal world, we’d have another creative midfield player to play in an advanced role to give Hamer that platform to be more central to our build-up play from the back with his glorious range of passing.
It is apparent that Hamer is a player of a higher calibre than much of the rest of this squad, his time at Coventry City is likely to be short. For him, his spell at the club is about making a name for himself while filing down the sharp edges to his game. For us, it’s about getting the maximum output from him to help keep us in the Championship. Hamer is still adapting to English football but has managed to be a key influence nonetheless, the hope is that if we can get him over this adaptation period quickly, he can reach a level of performance that could help drag the team further up the table.
Sideways Sammy 