West Ham 1-1 Manchester United
Hermansen:6 Gets West Ham on the front foot with incisive throws and kicks. Hardly anything to do.
Wan Bissaka: Crucially cleared off the line on 20 minutes following a clever set-piece. Amazing tackle on Fernandez on 77 mins. At times Obi Wan was at his defensive best.
Mavropanos:8 Played a magnificent 60 yard pass to Bowen who won a freekick then delivered an abysmal cross. Some impressive headers once again. Rushed out of defence on 83 mins to win the ball in midfield.
Disasi:7 Excellent tackle as Man U started to get a foothold in the game after 20 mins. Two more important stops in the first half as Disasi continued from Burnley’s impressive performance. Could have been tighter for Man U’s equaliser.
Diouf:7 Tidied up nicely following a poor pass from Summerville which put the Hammers under pressure. Mixed results with his passing but made some key tackles. Did really well to catch the marauding Cunha at one point. Played his part in the opener before putting Summerville through with a wonderful chipped pass. Diouf’s performance dropped off massively after an hour.
Potts:7 Showed his intent with a good early tackle. It’s clear he likes playing with Fernandes.
Soucek:9 Probably the least involved player in the first half but covered a lot of ground. Immediately in the think of the action early in the second half when he played a one/two with Bowen before ghosting into the box to score from Bowen’s cross. Important defensive header on 66 mins. Vital block on 87 mins in what was a huge performance.
Fernandes:8 Always communicating and has an authority well beyond his years. Always looking over his shoulder before he receives the ball.
West Ham 1-1 Manchester United: Fernandes once again impressed
Bowen:7 The first West Ham player to touch the ball and for some odd reason just decided to hoof it up the pitch to nobody but secured the first corner of the game by dribbling at Maguire. Flicked a header just wide from Summerville’s cross in a busy first 10 mins but overall, Bowen nowhere near his level in the first half. Started the second half by dribbling straight into trouble again in a defensive position. Made amends shortly afterwards when he combined wonderfully with Tomas Soucek to put the hammers 1-0 up. Fought incredibly hard defensively.
Summerville:7 Tested the Man U keeper early with an excellent curling shot. Playing with confidence and operating at such a high level. Surprised he wasn’t permanently injured by Dalot who got a card for his crude challenge.
Castellanos:7 At the risk of repeating myself, Taty’s work rate is really impressive to behold.
Soucek gets stuck in to Man U’s midfield
Substitutes
Wilson:5 Replaced by Taty on 68 mins. So greedy, should have squared it to Magassa for a tap in.
Scarles:6 on for the exhausted Diouf on 79 mins as part of a double sub
Magassa:7 Replaced Potts who’d played his heart out. Brilliant block on Casemiro.
Traore:4 On for Bowen on 89 mins. Had the chance to clinch it on 92 mins.
Walker Peters:5 on for Summerville
Starting to really like Mads. Comes for crosses and excellent distribution.
Good to see Magassa surging forward, suckering a MU defender, while also being an effective defensive midfielder. It adds an element to team’s midfield. Fan of Potts of course, but keep repeating he needs to add to his game (so I’ll stop! Also it feels a wee bit unfair), but perhaps manager has told him not to range or simply need time to develop.
Diouf more physical than Scarles and Mbeumo came into it more with Diouf off. Not sure if because of Scarles’ positioning, more likely the combination between him and Traore needs looking at? Maybe MU were just too lucky and that’s football.
Traore scoring or a Wilson pass to Magassa was really needed to make it safe, we’ve all seen what happens in the PL with late goals. The team tried, but one of those chances needed to go in, with MU so committed to attack and open at the back. Too casual by Wilson who ended up taking a shot that would not beat a goalkeeper.
I’m going to be really, really happy if I have to admit I was wrong about Disasi, and if he continues like this, to apologise, beaming broadly!
Agree on Wilson looked like he put his goal bonus ahead of the right pass, very disappointing.
Overall an excellent performance from the team, where they found 7 minutes is anyone’s guess and as for Seskos finish it was from another planet, literally out of this world. There is something about us as a club where teams score Worldies we deserved to win and have to hope at the end of the season we don’t regret all these dropped points.
Really starting to see a bit of likeability about this team now, players willing to pull their socks up and put in a shift for a result. Not perfect and would still love some defensive reinforcements, but they’ve turned me around from wanting shot of the lot of them and starting again from scratch to some hope for staying up and actually having some potential to kick on next season. Based on form over the last 6 games we’d be 6th. Time to stop measuring how bad we’ve been since the January of Moyesy’s final season??
Gutted, but by no means crest fallen. Good draw against most in form team in the league.
Hermansen 7, Bissaka 7, Mavropanos 7, Disasi 7, Diouf 7, Potts 7, Fernandes 7.5, Soucek 8, Bowen 7.5, Summerville 7.5, Castellanos 6 Scarles 7, Magassa 6.5, Wilson 5.5, Walker-Peters 5, Traore 2.5.
Overall, a very good team performance which should have resulted in 3 points but, as traditional with West Ham, only resulted in 1. Very encouraging performance which offers hope; but we simply cannot continue to give points away. If Forest win tomorrow then I think that would be us finished – the task will be too big.
A very frustrating result! In a hard fought match, again the irons managed to open the score, but all their subsequent attacking attempts turned out fruitless. Against this opposition, at least a second goal was necessary. In general the defense was doing ok up to the equalizer. Now, all this means, is that it will take longer and that it keeps requiring everyone’s best effort to eventually reach safety.
Gutted. Deserved all three points. Souchek man of the match.
Got more than was expected and unlucky not to win.
Last 20 minutes looked to be running on empty and a few wayward passes.
Nuno learning with his subs.