Exclusive: McAvennie agrees with Rice admission about West Ham display v Leeds
We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham United striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…
Frank McAvennie has replicated Declan Rice’s claim that West Ham didn’t play at their best despite winning against Leeds on Monday.
Jesse Lingard and Craig Dawson both scored in the first half to earn the Irons a 2-0 victory and all three points at the London Stadium.
Leeds had two goals disallowed and could have easily earned at least a point in East London, leading to Rice saying after the game, via the Daily Mail, that West Ham “didn’t play the best”.
Ex-West Ham striker McAvennie agrees with Rice and admits Leeds were unfortunate to get beaten in East London.
“It’s a very fair assessment. In the first 15 or 20 minutes, I thought Leeds were superb, they created a few chances and had the ball in the back of the net a couple of times but were ruled out due to VAR,” McAvennie told West Ham Zone.
“Declan’s come out and said it straight, I thought West Ham were so lethargic. They didn’t look sharp and they didn’t look energetic but that can happen sometimes.
“But they got the result. You wouldn’t have back that in the first 10 minutes, you’d have thought Leeds were odds-on to win that game.”
West Ham’s poor performance but brilliant result against Leeds says a lot about the team.
It shows that even when they’re not at their best, they’re still able to take their chances and clinch all three points.
There was an element of luck towards both goals because Luke Ayling’s foul to concede a penalty was ridiculously bad defending and Lingard took two attempts to score the spot-kick.
Leeds have also been very bad at defending corners this season so a rampaging Dawson was always going to be difficult for them to deal with.
West Ham have played better but that win shows why they’re up there this season because the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United don’t perform brilliantly in all of their wins but they do find a way to win, after all.
In other West Ham news, our panel of Super Fans have discussed whether finishing in the top-four is a realistic target.