Dean White

Sun 28 March 2021 17:28, UK

Issa Diop is likely to feel a bit more frustrated with how his season has panned out compared to most players at West Ham.

Before the start of February, the 24-year-old had made just four Premier League appearances for the Hammers with Fabian Balbuena, Craig Dawson, Angelo Ogbonna and Aaron Cresswell all been chosen to play at centre-back over him.

However, since Ogbonna’s injury, Diop has started and played every minute of each of West Ham’s last six league fixtures and has shown some impressive improvement in the process.

David Moyes went into this season thinking Diop would be a regular starter in his defence with the ex-Toulouse ace starting the first two matches against Newcastle and Arsenal.

Both matches ended in defeat with Diop failing to win any defensive duels in the 2-0 loss to Newcastle at the London Stadium.

Diop returned to the starting line-up against Crystal Palace in December but again failed to impress having failed to win any of his four aerial duels and completing just one interception.

We’ve previously done an in-depth analysis of Diop’s shocker against Palace as he was absolutely bullied by Christian Benteke.

Many would have thought that would have been it for Diop this season. Three starts, three disappointing results and three sub-par performances.

But there’s a reason why Jose Mourinho once dubbed Diop a “monster” – and we’ve seen that in his recent displays.

West Ham have kept two clean sheets in their last six matches with Diop starting in the defence with the Frenchman also scoring against Sheffield United on February 15.

One of those clean sheets was very hard-earnt when the Hammers beat Leeds 2-0 at the London Stadium on March 8. Stats by Wyscout show Diop made a stunning 11 interceptions, which is way up on his season average per 90 minutes [5.15].

Below you can see a map of Diop’s interceptions with that game with the Irons centre-back making the bulk of them inside the penalty area, on the edge of the six-yard box.

Diop’s improvement in his recent appearances is something that stats don’t quite prove.

As you can see below, Diop averaged more interceptions, recoveries and clearances per 90 minutes of Premier League football last season. But we’d argue that could be due to the fact West Ham are performing far better in the Premier League as this stage last year, they were in a relegation battle.

But when you look at Diop’s success rate in certain types of duels, you can see a massive improvement.

Above, you can see how Diop’s making fewer defensive contributions this season but below, the graph shows that the Frenchman’s more efficient when called upon to do his defensive duties.

Not only is Diop’s pass accuracy far better this season, he’s won more defensive duels and won more loose ball duels. While he’s won fewer aerial duels, we would argue that number could be skewed by how poorly he played against Benteke in December and that Craig Dawson has dominated the aerial game alongside him in recent weeks.

According to stats by Wyscout, Diop also ranks an impressive sixth place in the Premier League for shots blocked per 90 minutes, just ahead of Dawson.

Diop celebrated his 24th birthday in January so he’s the young, unfinished product that he once was with the centre-back now having 75 Premier League appearances under his belt to add to his 85 outings in Ligue 1 with Toulouse.

We simply won’t buy the excuse that Diop is just a young player any more but since those awful displays against Newcastle, Arsenal and Palace, there’s a clear improvement from the defender, who’s learned from his mistakes and is becoming a real asset for Moyes.

In other West Ham news, Alan Pardew claims Mark Noble can become a manager one day.