Hugh hands out the marks
Fabianski: A couple of great first half saves, difficult to fault him for the goal and cleared the ball more quickly than ever. Good game for Fab 7+
Coufal: Did all you could expect and more as usual – great going forward and was unlucky not to notch his first goal for the club when he hit the post. 8
Diop: Much improved. Made some fine tackles and interventions. 7
Dawson: Caught out of position for the goal – alright apart from that but probably responsible for us losing 5
Cresswell: Never really produced those killer crosses finding the Everton defence too well organised 6
Soucek: Average performance by his own standards but plenty of good stuff in aerial draws and always playing the simple ball 6+
Fornals: Set up Benrahma for our best chance of the match and plenty of fine short and long and short passing. My Hammer MOM 8+
Lanzini: Sadly went off injured before which he was very very neat, tidy and looking the part again 7
Lingard: Wasn’t in the game nearly enough for me but was always looking dangerous when running at the defence. 6
Benrahma: Missed a truly great chance, occasionally looked as if he may create something but broke down at vital moments. Substituted 5+
Antonio: Incredibly strong on the ball and looking as fit as it gets but not enough quality service 7
Subs
Bowen: Ceaseless working from the fella – always trying but like the others found the defence too strong 5+
Fredericks: Barely noticed him to be honest after he had taken the armband from Cress 5
Yarmolenko: First appearance for ages and it showed. Rusty but stuck to it. 4
Good ratings, I totally agree with you in relation to Fornals, outstanding and can I say some people say he is not a CM, he was outstanding in there today and in my opinion is a position he should play more often. My man of the match too closely followed by Coufal.
I understand why he played an unchanged team but becomes a bit crowded in the middle at times. System works less well for Lingard I think with less room for him to run into. Think lingard is better in a counter attacking system with five at the back. Perhaps we were forgetting what got us to we we were so far this season.
Sorry Hugh, can’t agree with your rating for Antonio. Nothing he tried came off and his distribution was below par. At no time in the match did the front players manage to construct a move together of any quality.
Richarlison dropped deep and for some reason Diop went with him, leaving Dawson one on one with DCL. Only ever gonna be one result. How do Everton persistently stifle us season after season? Even when we beat them it’s scruffy and scrappy.
The crazy thing is that is was evident that Everton dealt with the high balls into the box and our corners, but we never really tried anything different, no variation , no change at all and quelle surprise, nothing changed !
That was down to management to change our tactics, not keep pumping balls into a well drilled defence.
For me he is playing Soucek too deep now.
Rice being injured has killed his game, surely play Fornals deep and let Soucek free again, we miss his goals.
Also Diop keeps getting dragged out of position again and again leaving his other defensive partner exposed, it happened again today.
Time for Pearce to get hold of him.
Apart from those comments I think again a lack of forwards is killing us, we can’t change anything up top again, especially when Ant needs some help.
Never a European contender. Two many older players with Injury problems,
No one seems to be talking about Evertons 8-1-1 formation which seems to completely bamboozal West Ham players and David Moyes….
There’s little doubt now that DM’s West Ham are counter-attacking force and struggle to break down defences that are parking the bus….