Hugh hands out his marks
Fabianski: No chance with the goal but faultless after that despite the often fragile Hammers defence 7
Fredericks: Pretty ordinary if the truth be told – did nothing wrong but never seriously impacted on the 90 minutes 5
Diop: No real concerns but you were thankful the Watford forwards left their shooting boots in the dressing room at times 6
Ogbonna: Much better than last week at Brighton and did his best to start stuff off from the back 6
Masuaku: Responsible for the first goal but then we know he’s not a defender. After that did nothing much wrong 6
Rice: Coming back to his best and that may have been because the skipper was alongside sharing the midfield defensive duties 7
Noble: Great to see him back and having a real influence plus scoring an unstoppable penalty 7
Lanzini: Wonderful sight when he’s in his pomp, all trickery and wizadry. Just get the new deal signed 8
Yarmolenko: Plenty of forward running and tried a couple of trademark left foot efforts. Probably needs more time to be seen at his best 6
Anderson: Saw lots of the ball and laid on Haller’s first but he really needs to toughen up and not be so easily brushed aside 7
Haller: Magnificent centre forward’s display and the second goal was pure genius – if you missed the game don’t miss it on MOTD 9
Subs
Antonio: Once again made a difference with his fierce running when appearing in the second half and saw a close range header saved 7
Fornals: Late arrival – little chance to influence anything No rating
Sanchez: Came on with three minutes to go No rating
Thanks for the ratings again Hugh. Today we saw magnificent performances by Haller, Mark, Lanzini, Declan, Antonio etc. And again some similarly bad performances by Masuaku (absent at goal against) Frederick’s maxe many seriously bad mistakes in the entire match. Between him and Yarmo, they gave Watford serious opportunities to attack as the gave away the ball. Ogbonna, better yes … esp with corners against. Anderson … really 45 mil. Still no goal pre-season and 2 games in new season. 1 assist and many bad decisions today. And can someone check why he does not take shots at goal? Nonetheless, great overall performance from the team. And yes, a win.
I thought Yarmolenko was excellent he should play right back because he is a better defender than Fredericks who looks unsure, Arthur was better but still caught out numerous times, on quality of chances created we should have lost but Watford forwards couldn’t hit a barn let alone a barn door. Rice in the first half gave the ball away a lot. Lanzini was my man of the match gave him 9, Haller and Anderson 8’s. We really need to swap Fredericks out and bring Zaba or Johnson in.
No. 32, Yarmolenko did play like a full back but alas that’s not much of a compliment. Instead of taking on defenders and putting in crosses, Yarmo seemed content to put Fredericks through time and again to do his job.
Ryan Fredericks has pace to burn but his crosses were non-directional, hit and hope. His self-belief seriously needs a reset after the last 3 outings. A spell on the bench beckons.
Anderson was a joy to behold going forward and he worked tirelessly tracking back to cover the left back position often vacated by Masuaku.
Why did Masuaku get a contract extension ?
Exactly Barry
Complete liability the one footed wonder. I find it hard to believe, just because he had a couple of reasonable games at the end of last season.
No surprise every team attacks us on the right. They know
I think that your ratings are largely right Hugh. it was nice to have commentary on TV in South Africa with Tony Gale – for some reason we could watch the Brighton game without any audible commentary. I agreed with Gale that Antonio should have started instead of Yarmolenko . While Masuaku was one of the players at fault for their goal, it was also his persistence that won the ball back and set up Anderson to create Haller’s first. As someone said on a related thread, it is about the squad not the starting XI – in this regard Sanchez will have an important role in coming on to close out games – I’m not sure why he is such a hate figure – he only cost a couple of million (say vs 17 million for Yarmolenko) and yesterday did what was asked of him
Comments about Mausuaku are a joke he carried and passed the ball out of defence well.
He was not at fault for the goal Anderson lost the ball at their byline in the box their players broke and we had Lanzini Anderson yarmolenko all barely breaking into a Jog to get back and help win the ball. They had a 5 on 6 situation at the back I knew they were going to hurt us as I watched their players burst forward and not one of our attacking players even bothered to get back into shape.