Sky Sports’ Ron Walker slams Diop and Dawson in West Ham v Watford
West Ham found themselves 1-0 down against Watford at Vicarage Road just four minutes into the clash on Tuesday (28 December).
Emmanuel Dennis put the hosts ahead, and Sky Sports’ Ron Walker was far from pleased with the defending of Hammers centre-back duo Issa Diop and Craig Dawson, slamming them while providing live commentary text on the website.
West Ham are without Angelo Ogbonna and Kurt Zouma due to injuries, and their covers have failed to impress in their absence.
The Sky Sports man said: “Watford’s goal machine finds the net again!
“He makes the goal himself, and takes advantage of some awful attempt at defending from ex-Hornet Dawson and Diop.”
Woeful
There is still another 45 minutes to play and West Ham can still comfortably win this game.
In fact, they improved after going behind and Tomas Soucek drew them level on the 27th-minute before Said Benrahma put them ahead two minutes later, but the Irons should never have conceded in the first place.
Josh King found Dennis in the box and he was allowed to move into space before firing a rising shot into the top corner, and a handful of West Ham defenders could only watch him do it.
The Nigerian shimmied away from both centre-backs, fainted to shoot, moved further towards the middle and capitalised on the space that opened up to beat Lukasz Fabianski with a great hit into the top corner.
The Hammers defence have not been the same since David Moyes’ first-choice pairing got injured, and they simply need to bring in reinforcements when the January transfer window opens.
Failure to do so could be catastrophic as they cannot afford to rely on Diop and Dawson going forward.
In other West Ham news, an amazing attacker is making personal arrangements for Hammers switch in January.
Be sure to follow West Ham Zone on Facebook and Twitter for 24/7 updates on the Hammers and more exclusive interviews with Frank McAvennie.