Joe Ellis

Sun 10 April 2022 15:53, UK

West Ham were unable to capitalise on their rivals’ dropped points as they were beaten 2-0 away at Brentford this afternoon.

Bryan Mbuemo scored the crucial opening goal just moments into the second half after latching onto a flick-on to fire beyond Lukasz Fabianski at the near post.

Ivan Toney doubled the Bees’ lead just after the hour as the Hammers fell to defeat with a whimper at the Brentford Community Stadium. Here is how we rated the West Ham players today.

Lukasz Fabianski – 8

Brentford came at West Ham hard in the first half and the Hammers had the Pole in goal to thank for being level at the break. A handful of routine but crucial saves stopped the Bees from buzzing into an unassailable lead before the Irons could settle.

Vladimir Coufal – 5

It was all a bit too sideways and backwards from Coufal whenever he was on the ball. Very rarely did the Czech international ping the ball down the line for Bowen or Antonio to chase the space and get West Ham up the field when under pressure. His defending wasn’t much better either.

Kurt Zouma – 4

He only lasted half an hour before slowly hobbling off, which will be a real worry for Moyes, but even in that time, he looked uneasy. The agile Brentford attack troubled the Frenchman far too often for anyone’s liking while he struggled on with the knock that ended his day early.

Craig Dawson – 6

Dawson had an injured Zouma and then a dreadful Diop to contend with as his central defensive partners but he did what he could regardless. There was little he could do to stop Mbuemo from opening the scoring after his partner had gone walkabout on his own accord.

Aaron Cresswell – 6

Had it not been for a couple of huge blocks from Cresswell, it would have been a far more embarrassing day for the Irons. The left-back got past his midweek red card against Lyon to be one of the few Hammers players to play relatively well although it was still nothing to write home about on the whole.

Declan Rice – 7

There was less of an influence on attacking for the England international given the pressure Brentford were able to put on the European chasers but Rice was everywhere. He screened the back four effortlessly and was there to make an uncountable number of interceptions to halt dangerous attacks.

Tomas Soucek – 5

Soucek’s mobility was tested heavily today and he didn’t come through it in flying colours. He was as effective as ever in the air and got forward occasionally but the workhorses in the Bees midfield were able to run beyond him all too often.

Jarrod Bowen – 5

The energy is there for Bowen but you can tell he’s still somewhat recovering from that injury he suffered away at Liverpool. The sharpness wasn’t quite what he is capable of and the supremely athletic Rico Henry didn’t provide much relief for the 25-year-old all afternoon either on a disappointing day.

Manuel Lanzini – 4

The number 10 role is a tough one to play against an energetic side and Lanzini proved that today. He rarely got on the ball to affect the game in the final third and was caught out far too often for Moyes’ liking by the buzzing Bees midfield.

Pablo Fornals – 6

There was a lot of running from the Spaniard today and he arguably looked the most likely of the West Ham attack to do something special (although the competition was weak). He’s being wasted on the left wing and Moyes needs to move him inside and forget about Lanzini.

Michail Antonio – 6

The Jamaican had to battle hard against the physical Ethan Pinnock and it made for an intriguing contest all afternoon. There were occasions where the Hammers number nine got the beating of his opponent but on the balance of play, Pinnock came out on top.

Substitutes:

Issa Diop (on for Zouma 29′) – 1

There are no excuses for Diop’s truly awful positioning for Mbuemo’s opening goal. He was caught out ball-watching like a nine-year-old and was left in no man’s land as the Bees striker struck. It was him again getting caught under the ball for Toney’s goal as he had a horror day to forget.

Said Benrahma (on for Lanzini 57′) – 5

The Algerian returned to his former club to applause from both sets of supporters but that is as noteworthy as his day was. Despite having more than half an hour to change the game, Benrahma was seen on the ball very little as the Bees took the sting out of the game.

Nikola Vlasic (on for Antonio 65′) – 5

It was an odd decision to bring Antonio off by Moyes and considering Vlasic was equally ineffective as Benrahma was, maybe he would have been best leaving him on if he wanted to win the game.

In other West Ham news, Antonio has lifted the lid on his fallout with Moyes a few years ago.

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