Hughie hands out his marks
Fabianski: Apart from the goal he enjoyed a relatively quiet evening but good to see him clearing a bit quicker than usual 6
Coufal: Utterly extraordinary and I though Zaha might burst out in tears at times. Magnificently set up a wonderful goal and just at the highest level all night long 11
Diop: In for the injured Balbuena and did just fine after a long lay-off 7
Ogbonna: No new words from me – another top performance 7+
Cresswell: Defended well, shook off a nasty looking ankle injury but on the back foot much of the timeas Palace raced forwards 6
Soucek: Quiet for the most part but made his presence felt at times in the second half 6+
Rice: Yet another top performance and starting to move into attacking positions much more 8
Bowen: Worked his socks off, made great runs, one great shot and another just over the bar – top player this lad 7+
Benrahma: Not his night -nothing much came off and often running into cul de sacs – he will need time 5
Fornals: Runs forever but never real serious impact – can’t quite put my finger on the boy’s game 6
Haller: What a goal – stunning – and now Seb let’s see your A game 7
Subs
Lanzini: Lively, always looking to get on the ball – challenged hard for a start next Monday 6+
Yarmolenko: Little time to impress but worked hard and tracked back well to make a couple of important tackles 5
Snoddy: On for four minutes but come on Moysie hard to expect him to add to the four he has scored against Palace in the last six outings within 480 seconds he was on the pitch LOL No rating
I think Bowen has been fantastic and usually he’s the beating heart of out attacks but I wasn’t so impressed tonight. Particularly in 1st half I noticed that he just gave up when he lost the ball rather than fighting back. Glad Haller got plenty of praise, slowly but surely he’s having more of an impact.
Bowen must be a bit weary with the effort he’s made in every game – I thought he was still excellent until he appeared to run out of gas. I’ve supported Haller in the past on here and I still do. Hopefully his confidence is building and I think his work rate has steadily increased. But I’m not convinced that he has a real goal-poacher’s instinct. He’s often half a yard slow and doesn’t either gamble and get across a defender or anticipate the ball coming back off the keeper, as in last night. Still, plenty of optimism for Monday but we need Johnson on the bench to cover either flank. If Cresswell had to go off, was Moyes going to switch Coufal and let Zaha loose on Fredericks?
I think Coufals performance tonight was the best I have seen from a West Ham player this season
Bowen was great. Coufal was outstanding. Coufal man of the match. Haller did absolutely nothing apart from score a wonder goal with one of his few touches. Fornals after creating his customary chance and subsequent miss went totally missing. Not his usual hard working self. you can see why he got subbed at half time. Rice and Souchek ok but Souchek was man marked extremely closely during every set piece. Cresswell seemed a bit off it. Benrahma looks like he’s still adapting to the pace of the premier league. Not given time on the ball to create anything. Ogbonna ok. Diop slow to react to benteke and beaten too easily for their goal.
Absolutely nothing is a very harsh assessment of Sebastian Haller’s contribution last night. Using this as a yardstick it would seem to apply to a majority of players against Crystal Palace. Wonder we didn’t lose heavily. Glad all over that this wasn’t the case!
COYI
Coufal was superb and showed real class. Overall I thought we looked tired. If Fornals could just start taking the chances he gets and Benrahma could try for a bit more control, it would improve things. I’m glad that Haller scored – now he needs to do it more often. My heart sank at the red card because we have never found it easy to beat 10 men. Overall though, this and other games are ones that in previous seasons we would have lost so a vast improvement. COYI!