Crooks: Issa Diop and Jesse Lingard both fantastic in 3-0 win against Sheffield Utd
West Ham duo Jesse Lingard and Issa Diop both performed excellently against Sheffield United, according to BBC pundit Garth Crooks.
Diop scored the Hammers second on just his fourth Premier League appearance this season. Lingard also maintained his impressive start to life in claret and blue in the 3-0 win. The loanee won a penalty in the first half, which was cooly converted by the skipper, Declan Rice.
Crooks heaped praise on the pair when giving his team of the week, as West Ham made it twelve wins in the league.
Crooks said: “Issa Diop comes back into the side after being forced off with an injury in his previous game and looked like he’s never been away.
“An excellent defensive performance by the lad.”
Lingard was appearing in Crooks’s eleven for the second consecutive week, after his goalscoring debut against Aston Villa.
He said: “When he’s on form, and he is at the moment, his ability to transition the play from defence into attack is as good as I’ve seen from any player and he demonstrated this beautifully against Sheffield United.”
A big next five
The upcoming fixtures could shape West Ham’s season.
David Moyes’ side have been the Premier League’s surprise packages in the 2020/21 campaign, winning 50% of their matches overall.
The next five matches prove a massive challenge. We host Spurs on Sunday, and a win will open up a huge nine-point gap over our London rivals.
We then travel to the runaway leaders, Manchester City, with whom we drew 1-1 at home earlier in the season. We also travel to Manchester United, either side of facing Leeds and Arsenal at home.
Each of the sides we face between now and the end of March pose a threat to our momentum. It’s a big five weeks in our season. Should we come through it with a reasonable points tally, we should still be in the race for Europe with nine games left.
Moyes will be hoping for more big performances from the likes of Diop and Lingard in the coming weeks as we continue to push up the table.
Come on you Irons!
In other West Ham news, Vladimir Coufal has set a position target for the Hammers come the end of the season.