Rare 3/10 shocker for Craig Dawson – West Ham player ratings v Southampton
West Ham bowed out of the FA Cup at the fifth round stage as the Irons were beaten 3-1 by fellow Premier League outfit Southampton.
Saints left-back Romain Perraud fired the home side in front with a sensational strike from distance after half an hour before Michail Antonio levelled just before the hour.
David Moyes changed the Hammers’ formation to a 3-5-2 for this game but it did little to stop James Ward-Prowse from firing in from the penalty spot after a clumsy challenge by Craig Dawson.
Armando Broja completed the scoring in stoppage time to sink the Hammers but here is how we rated Moyes’ men at St. mary’s this evening.
Alphonse Areola – 7
The Frenchman, on loan from PSG, could do nothing about Perraud’s rocket for the opener and you can’t scold him for not saving a penalty.
He did pull off an outstanding save late on to deny Southampton scoring a third too in a positive display between the sticks.
Issa Diop – 5
Introduced into the back three in place of Aaron Cresswell, Diop looked uncertain on the ball far too often, slicing his clearances but it was far from a disaster-class from the Frenchman.
Craig Dawson – 3
A very rare poor game from Dawson who looked cagey on more than one occasion at the back. He compounded his poor evening by giving away a penalty in the second half for a desperate lunge.
Kurt Zouma – 6
He had to contend with the boos from the home crowd all night long but he rose above it to maintain a cool head and, like Dawson, prove a solid block to get past for the Saints attackers.
Ben Johnson – 6
A steady evening for the homegrown boy; Johnson tried his best to get up and down the right as the wing-back but did more defending than he did attacking overall.
Declan Rice – 7
This wasn’t evening Rice at his best and he still gets a seven, which tells you everything about his form at the moment. His driving runs from deep were a nightmare to contain and he put his foot in crucially at times too.
Tomas Soucek – 5
The poor bloke needs a rest. He looked very leggy in the middle again tonight and should have scored in the first half too before a blow to the head in the second ended his night early.
Pablo Fornals – 7
Maybe Fornals is a wing-back after all? He has never played there before, to our knowledge, but he looked very settled and he linked with the floating Lanzini very well in the channels.
Manuel Lanzini – 8
Lanzini was given more freedom thanks to Moyes’ formation change and it worked to the Argentine’s advantage as he drifted into dangerous areas and the Saints couldn’t keep up.
Jarrod Bowen – 4
For the second game in a row, Bowen scores lowest of all the Hammers’ starters which doesn’t bode well for his England chances.
The 25-year-old moved upfront alongside Antonio tonight but was often marked out of the game by the Saints defenders.
Michail Antonio – 6
Fractionally better than Bowen managed, Antonio too was ineffective for much of the game but his pace and power did help to create some confusion in Southampton’s defence.
He was in the right place at the right time to draw the West Ham level just before the hour.
Substitutes:
Said Benrahma (on for Soucek 53′) – 4
Was he even playing? Maybe he took the role of ghosting about a bit too far because he was almost invisible the entire time he was on the pitch.
Nikola Vlasic (on for Fornals 75′) – 5
He doesn’t rank quite as low as Benrahma as he was on the pitch for much less of the second half but he was just as invisible as his Algerian colleague.
In other West Ham news, this Hammers star is reportedly worth four times what the club paid for him as interest spikes ahead of the summer transfer window.
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