West Ham player ratings v Crystal Palace: Vladimir Coufal puts in stinker, Tomas Soucek shines
West Ham and Crystal Palace played out a seven-goal thriller at Selhurst Park on Saturday, 29 April, which saw the hosts winning 4-3.
A thrilling London derby lived up to its billing with drama and controversies at both ends.
The Hammers were the side that took the lead early on but were pegged back by the hosts and failed to ever take the lead again.
Here are our ratings for this one
Lukasz Fabianski – 4
Underperform his xGOT significantly and should’ve done more to keep out the Palace attackers. He wasn’t particularly helped by his defenders but he clearly could have marshalled the backline better.
Vladimir Coufal – 1
Was clearly at fault for two of Palace’s three goals in the first half as he looked all over the place during this lunchtime kick-off. Even apart from that, he saw the likes of Wilfried Zaha and Jeffrey Schlupp take him for a ride. He also offered no attacking threat in what was a terrible performance from him.
Kurt Zouma – N/A
Was barely on the pitch for 19 minutes and didn’t do much to merit a rating. The Hammers played most of the game without the ball so there are no surprises he just had two touches. [Sofascore]
Nayef Aguerd – 5
Failed to deal with Eberechi Eze in the second half and unnecessarily put his arms out which brought him down and awarded the hosts a penalty to make it four. He could’ve defended it better and this surely would not have impressed Moyes. Made amends by finding the back of the net to make it 4-3 but that will not take away from his sub-par defending.
Emerson – 4
The combination of the Italian and Pablo Fornals did not work as they weren’t on the same page during the game. They were rightly subbed off at the break and Emerson’s struggles in a back four continue. He is good going forward but is very suspect defensively.
Declan Rice – 6
Was tidy without the ball and helped his side defensively whenever he could. However, some of his passes went awry and he did not command the midfield as he usually does. He might blame the lack of movement around him, but given the standards he’s set in the past, this wasn’t among his better games.
Tomas Soucek – 8
Could arguably be called his best performance of the season as he did not seem to put a foot wrong. Got lucky when he had the ball fall to his feet for the goal, but he struck it perfectly to break the deadlock. His header then set up Michail Antonio for a crucial striker before the break. He also did well with the ball at his feet with a pass accuracy of 80 per cent.
Lucas Paqueta – 2
After a goal-scoring run of games, the Brazilian put in a pretty poor performance and was rightfully brought off as he was proving to be a liability for West Ham. He completed just 15 of his attempted 24 passes, lost 70 per cent of his ground duels and just switched off each time he was in the final third.
Jarrod Bowen – 4
Did not even have a single shot in what was an extremely quiet game for him. He did his bit to keep the ball ticking when play when down his side but apart from that, he couldn’t do much. He lost possession on eight occasions and completed just one out of four crosses.
Michail Antonio – 6
Leading the line for West Ham, the Jamaican did well to offer some goal threat and deservedly got his goal on the stroke of half time. However, he would’ve liked to be more involved in the build up than he was as he could only complete six passes all game.
Pablo Fornals -3
Lost possession seven times and failed to impose himself as a proper attacking threat despite impressing in recent games. He also failed to win a single aerial duel and did not help set up any goal-scoring opportunities for Antonio or Bowen.
Substitutes
Angelo Ogbonna – 4
Aaron Cresswell – 4
Said Benrahma – 4
Danny Ings – 3
Maxwel Cornet – N/A