WHZ View: Lapses in concentration show Coufal has suffered defensive dip at West Ham
Vladimir Coufal has won the hearts of West Ham fans this season with some terrific displays but he has proven he is not infallible in recent weeks.
The Czech Republic international joined in the summer transfer window to make the same switch at his compatriot Tomas Soucek and both have been brilliant buys.
They have been key cornerstones of our success this season but at West Ham Zone we have noticed a slight slip in Coufal’s standards of late.
According to Wyscout Coufal lost 75% [6/8] of his defensive duels versus Arsenal on Sunday as the Gunners made their incessant pressure tell with a stirring comeback to draw 3-3 and cancel out West Ham’s early three-goal lead.
This was comfortably his worst figure of the current campaign in this metric and a substantial drop-down from his 56.1% season average.
He is an aggressive defender but is usually extremely disciplined and tough to get past but he gave away a couple of fouls and received his first yellow card since October 24, which was just his third all season.
Coufal was sluggish to spot the Arsenal threat at times as shown below.
Here Calum Chambers is actually signalling with his arm where the ball is going to be played yet Coufal still does not recover in time.
Chambers chips the ball over the top of the defence an Alexandre Lacazette darts between Coufal and Craig Dawson into the vast space.
Instead of tracking the run Coufal steps forward which proves fatal to his chances of stopping Lacazette and he rolls goal side of him.
Luckily it does not amount to a goal but it showed that any drop in concentration can be punished.
There was a similar example right at the death when Nicolas Pepe ran inside of him and shot at goal but luckily Lukasz Fabianski was on alert to save.
We noticed this rather lackadaisical approach to his defending against Manchester City on February 27 as well.
Here, Kevin De Bruyne is shaping up to swing the ball into the West Ham penalty area but instead of covering back Coufal is flat-footed and just worrying about what is in front of him.
That means it is three-v-three in the box and that should never happen – we should always have a defender spare in our own penalty area.
The quality of the ball is such that Coufal is punished for his inattentiveness and we concede the opening goal in this game.
He has been Mr Consistent for us this season so we are confident this is just a small lapse in his defensive levels.
Coufal is still applying pressure on the opposition and making some important forward runs to give the likes of Jarrod Bowen and Jesse Lingard the space to weave their magic.
Maybe he just needs to concentrate a bit more on his defensive side and then we will see a return to the all-rounded ace we know and love.
In other West Ham news, see our exclusive Q&A with The Athletic’s Roshane Thomas for his verdict on some crucial Irons questions.