West Ham player ratings v Leeds – Three 4/10 horror shows in defeat
West Ham came back down to earth with a bump as Leeds United were inspired to a 3-2 Premier League victory at the London Stadium.
Jack Harrison led the Whites charge to a second successive league win with a fabulous hat-trick to overhaul goals from Jarrod Bowen and Pablo Fornals.
It’s a missed opportunity for David Moyes’ side who could have put distance between themselves and the chasing pack with Arsenal and Tottenham’s game called off.
Here is how we rated each individual West Ham player’s performance against Marcelo Bielsa’s side:
Lukasz Fabianski – 5
Probably should have saved Harrison’s first but made up for it with a couple of neat stops but it wasn’t a vintage goalkeeping display by any stretch of the imagination.
Vladimir Coufal – 4
His man scored a hat-trick, so he was never going to get a high score. Coufal often found himself out of position, allowing Harrison plenty of space to roam and he rarely threatened going forward either.
Craig Dawson – 5
He missed a vital header for the second goal and even though he dealt with the majority of issues otherwise, he wasn’t his usual, mistake-free self that we’ve become accustomed to.
Issa Diop – 4
Never looked settled on the ball and made mistakes all game. No surprise that Leeds scored three times given how off the pace Diop looked having been so solid in recent weeks. Understandably brought off late on with Moyes chasing a goal.
Aaron Cresswell – 6
A Jekyll and Hyde performance really, lacklustre defensively, not following Harrison for the second goal, but his set-piece delivery was a real threat. Bowen put one of those crosses in but Dawson should have done the same.
Declan Rice – 8
Once again, the epitome of calm in the Hammers midfield. Rice was possibly the most dangerous West Ham player going forward with dominant driving runs from midfield and courted the defence where possible amid an onslaught of White shirts.
Pablo Fornals – 7
What an engine he has, even though he was subbed off after 70 minutes for Yarmolenko, he didn’t stop running for a second and was a constant nuisance for Leeds’ central players, he took his goal well despite it meaning little at full-time
Manuel Lanzini – 5
You would be forgiven if you thought Lanzini wasn’t playing at all, The Argentine had his first off-day for a while and could not get a hold of the ball to make an impact in the final third.
Jarrod Bowen – 6
Really well-taken goal, stooping in to head home Aaron Cresswell’s corner, but other than that he didn’t have the same effect that he usually does on a game. Everyone is allowed a bad game every now and then and you would expect Bowen to come back even better for the next game.
Nikola Vlasic – 4
Not nearly as impactful as he was one week ago, dragged off after an hour in favour of Masuaku having lost the ball for Harrison’s third. The consistency of Said Benrahma was much missed by the Hammers.
Michail Antonio – 6
Held the ball up extremely well and his all-round play was very good but he needed to find a way to score with the Hammers losing. Ultimately, he didn’t do enough to turn the game in his team’s favour.
Substitutes:
Arthur Masuaku (on for Vlasic 60′) – 5 – ultimately isn’t really a left-winger which massively hampered the Hammers’ attacking ability on that side, Antonio often coming across to do the work Masuaku couldn’t.
Andriy Yarmolenko (on for Fornals 69′) – 5 – Had a goal rightly disallowed but was ineffective otherwise, not worth keeping around the place if he offers so little
Sonny Perkins (on for Diop 87′) – N/A – Premier League debut for the 17-year-old, only had a handful of minutes to do anything and wasn’t on the ball enough to be given a rating.
In other West Ham news, a Sky Sports pundit blasted this Hammer for his first-half display at the London Stadium.