5 Things Learned From West Ham's Win Over Birkirkara FC

Poor Modibo Maiga, the Mali international has long been the subject of ridicule by his own and opposition fans and this trend continued on Thursday night. Bought in the summer of 2012 after a couple of decent seasons at Sochoux, where he had scored 24 goals in 59 appearances, he went onto score 4 in 31 at West Ham and was subsequently loaned to QPR to similar effect (1 in 8). Last season however he scored 9 goals in 19 starts for Metz, but this wasn't enough to prevent them being relegated and once again Maiga finds himself back at West Ham. 

Where he had previously been played on the left wing at West Ham, he started up front on Thursday with Mauro Zarate playing just off of him. Maiga came close to scoring on a couple of occasions when he hit the post after sauntering through the middle of the pitch unchallenged from just past the half-way line and also headed straight at the keeper from 6 yards out. 

His most consistent and noticeable contribution to the game however was the amount of times he as either caught off-side, or stood in an off-side position, preventing his teammates from passing to him. There was much jeering from the crowd when he was eventually replaced by Elliot Lee in the second half. His performance would have re-affirmed any doubts in the manager's mind.