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How we rated the Irons against Chelsea

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Niall McDonald hands out the marks

Fabianski: Redeemed himself following last week’s error with 2 fine saves from Mount 8

Coufal: Usual professional defensive display, passed up another chance to shoot when through in the Chelsea area 7

Diop: Covered the left side of defence very well for me 8

Ogbonna: Thankfully he’s back from injury, with more suspensions to deal with… 7

Balbuena: The most ridiculous VAR decision I’ve seen so far (and that’s saying something) – had defended very well to that point 8

Fredericks: Looks unstoppable running in a straight line, some end product needed. Defended well though 7

Noble: Probably the best we can expect to see these days 6

Soucek: Curbing a lot of attacking instincts, hopefully Rice will be back to free him up a bit soon 6

Fornals: Tough going against the excellent Chelsea defence 6

Lingard: Very quiet, unfortunately. A few surges forward and one fine effort from nothing 6

Bowen: Double-shift tonight up-front and covering the right side as well 7

Subs

Lanzini: Unable to affect the game against this quality of opposition 4

Benrahma: One decent piece of skill and cross followed up by a slashed effort in stoppage time. Trying very hard not to write him off 4

Johnson: On very late for Fredericks No rating

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

11 comments

  • Taffyhammer says:

    Agree Niall. Fabianski could have been a nine. Nitpicking. He is very good though.

  • BoleynIrons says:

    Defence was poor today.
    Balbuena guilty of not being able to cut out the cross and when Coufal plays as a wing back he is not tight enough on the wide man. Diop kept heading back to Chelsea players. Fredericks ran well with pace down the wing but no end product again and his positional play is the worse I have seen in one of our players. We seemed like we had 10 men for most of the game the midfield not getting up front enough. Noble didn’t do anything of note either way. Soucek not his old self with getting in those goal scoring positions. Our corners are dreadfull at the moment.Can’t anyone bang one in ? We needed a striker on the pitch.

  • johnham1 says:

    I thought the back 3 were very solid. Coufal and Fredericks did fine but we were destroyed in midfield – I am sorry but I cannot see how Noble starts. We have the obvious replacement in Fornals in the absense of Rice. I find it staggering what Moyes (very generous with a 6) is thinking of continually picking him so many times Chelsea got wide and they had men on the edge of the box free. I cannot remember one tackle he made in the game and that is our defensive midfield – I do not know who is doing the video analysis but they need a kick up the backside. Bowen Lingard and Fornals worked hard without any reward. We play Burnley next and we have to go forward and that means Noble cannot start in the team.

    • WestOzHammer says:

      Bang on. Noble was way too slow for a team like Chelsea, we were basically steam-rolled in that first half..

  • Saul says:

    Can anyone tell me the point of Lanzini?

    Solid markings in my opinion, Hugh.

  • Dave says:

    I don’t see how you give Diop that mark, he didn’t even bother running back on their goal and his distribution was awful, obviously you saw it differently.
    I know Johnson is young but he looks so far out of his depth.
    Wow do we miss not having a forward and another centre midfielder at the club.
    Rice’s injury has also killed Soucek’s game as he has to cover noble.
    A lack of a forward also kills lingards game as they can push up on him with no one running in behind.

    You can see why the teams at the top have such big squads, if you want to go the distance you need replacements, we had a bench of kids & crocks.

  • GaryD says:

    Think you were harsh on Noble who made no mistakes and generous with Bowen who made plenty. Bowen does work hard but doesn’t see the game well.
    Diop will sit when Cresswell gets back.
    Chelsea defence were there for the taking. Fredericks made them look like old men.

    • Taffyhammer says:

      Jarrod Bowen had lots of support behind him with Mark Noble watching. Difficult for Bowen to do it all on his own. Mark did very little so chances of making a mistake were limited. Just a view GaryD.

  • George Green says:

    Less for Balbuena as he didn’t cut out the cross to Werner for the goal.

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