Football can be cruel, especially in England. The demanding Premier League never brings any long-term security. Even if you are a hero at one point, you may be a loser, an outcast or a critic at another.
In the derby between West Ham and Fulham, Ademola Lookman in particular experienced this painful twist. In the eighth minute of the setting, the young, excellent guest wing refused to gain a very valuable point for Cottagers in a tragically executed “doll” penalty.
Vladimír Coufal could have experienced similar emotions, albeit to a much lesser extent.
Until now, since his arrival in East London in early October, he had been the recipient of almost continuous praise. He adapted in a flash and played five difficult duels with a full portion of minutes in the basic line-up.
In fact, he became a Hammers fan darling overnight.
It all culminated last week, when supporters welcomed behind-the-scenes rumors that the club was preparing to sell Coufal’s main competitor to the post of right defender – Ryan Fredericks.
The Czech is better in everything, he can physically handle even a demanding program and we have a young Ben Johnson for the back-up, we don’t need Fredericks. In this sense, the fans expressed themselves most often.
But an indistinct half against Fulham was enough, and the social networks were filled with calls for Coufal’s exchange.
The responses basically brought the following general message: The 28-year-old Czech is a better player overall, but a slightly more offensive Englishman would probably work better against an opponent like Fulham.
The truth is that in the duel with Fulham, pre-match fears were fulfilled to the fullest.
West Ham fought fantastically against strong opponents, pulling himself into a solid defensive shell, from which he headed for dangerous breaks. On Saturday, however, an opponent came to London Stadium with a similar tactic. Suddenly it was up to the Hammers to create.
The result was an unconvincing performance lacking creativity and any moment of surprise.
Under the initial pressure, Moyes’ charges had several great chances, but it was only a few promising minutes. Long-lived suffering ensued.
The attack on the wings brought a sufficient number of centers. But Coufal on one side and Arthur Masuaku on the other were desperately inaccurate this time. After all, the Scottish manager himself named it after the match, which his team won just 1: 0 after Tomáš Souček’s goal in the setting.
“Our centers were terrible today. Either they were too long, high or they hit the first player of the opponent. We had Haller in the lime and Souček often moved out. The centers disappointed me, their quality was really poor,” Moyes shook his head.
In the traditional scoring of the Football.London server, Coufal received an average six. “He had an unpleasant juice in Lookman, but he fought him well. He got a lot ahead, but his centers were average,” he wrote.
In addition to unsuccessful centers, the ex-Slavist also failed in one-on-one penetration attempts. Later, he preferred to return the ball back to avoid unnecessary losses, which, as a result, contributed to the readable and stereotypical game of West Ham.
By no means was it just Coufal and Masuaku. Fornals and Bowen didn’t do well either, both offensive supports even got a grade of 5. According to the evaluation, the best of the team was left stopper Aaron Creswell, he got an eight.
Goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski received the seventh, alternating Said Benrahma and Tomáš Souček.
At first glance, Souček’s performance seemed insignificant, the Czech midfielder met the ball minimally, and this time he lost a larger number of personal fights atypically.
According to the WhoScored.com server, which uses a wide range of different statistics to evaluate players, he was the best man on the field with a breathtaking score of 8.4.
Of course, precise and decisive intervention contributed to this. Souček aroused enthusiasm in the Hammer’s camp. This Twitter post speaks for itself:
The celebration of the day of Masuak promised the Czech hero champagne, as well as the goalkeeper Fabianský. Fans wrote how “Součka cannot be loved”, although he is not very well understood in the interviews yet.
But Said Benrahma’s contribution also aroused enthusiasm.
Although the Algerian ball magician first had to wait at the side line for more than ten minutes before entering the game, he then demonstrated why West Ham had committed to send up to £ 25 million for him to Brentford in the future.
The twenty-five-year-old, more expensive than Souček and Coufal, declared in twenty minutes his ambition and skills to be a different player.
The golden nail came in the setting. He processed the ball in the cold and completely cold blood and in the position from which the vast majority of players would headlessly shoot at the goal, he found a better placed Souček on the penalty.
Post-match interview with Tomáš Souček:
Benrahm’s influence was not affected by an unfortunate intervention in his own sixteen, after which Lookman did not change the penalty mentioned in the introduction to the text.
It is in Benrahm that the solution lies mainly for home matches against opponents from the lower half of the table. Next time he has to play from the beginning, fans say. Even if Moyes were to relegate Captain Declan Rice to the position of stopper and send Pablo Fornall to Souček in the middle. There are many other options for the necessary injection of creativity.
After a national team break, West Ham will perform at Sheffield United and then at home with Aston Villa.
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