The General and his Lieutenant; Grading West Ham’s centre-backs

After a rocky start to the season, West Ham’s defensive core has been extremely solid since the first international break. Why? Well, the new pairing of defenders and benching of the senior player may have something to do with it. Here are the updated grades for West Ham’s centre-backs.

In our rating system, we will be giving marks out of 10, with 5/10 for playing as expected. Whilst some newspapers and the like seem to give 6 or 7 out of 10 for an average display and may make this seem harsh, we think this makes sense. It also easily allows us here to put the West Ham players in opposite categories, for example, a 9/10 is as good as a 1/10 is bad.

Fabian Balbuena: 7/10

Previous: 5/10

The Paraguayan defender and Premier League newcomer Fabian Balbuena has really settled into his life with West Ham after a tough start to the season for the entire team. West Ham were shipping goals and scoring next to none, it wasn’t flattering on the offense but the defensive players were under the microscope too. Balbuena was given the benefit of the doubt in this first month as we all expected him to start performing better with more experience. We were right.

Balbuena was paired up with Issa Diop for the Arsenal match and despite the 3-1 loss, there were real positives for West Ham to take from that game, notably the shutting down of Aubumeyang and Lacazette for the majority of the match. Balbuena and Diop have since been together and have shut out Lukaku, Walcott, Bernard, Hazard, Willian, Kante, Jorginho, Morata, and Giroud.

Balbuena brings a calmness to the squad with his simple play style, a feature that has been missing for West Ham in the past few seasons. He has also settled the team down (along with Issa Diop) on set pieces, making the team less vulnerable from dead balls. He makes the clearances he should, isn’t afraid to put a ball out for a corner if he’s uncertain he can get it to safety, and is terrific in the air. He’s performing at a level that would render his £3.5 million transfer fee a bargain.

Stats:

Games: 8
Clean sheets: 1
Tackles: 14 (64% success)
Blocks: 1
Interceptions: 22
Clearances: 62 (29 headed)
Recoveries: 40
Duels: 37-32
Aerial battles: 20-20
Passes 296 (37 avg. per match)

Issa Diop: 7.5/10

Previous: 5/10

Diop has risen 2.5 rankings and surpassed Fabian Balbuena as West Ham’s highest ranked defender. He hasn’t really done anything better than Balbuena but he was brought in for a record fee, is highly touted as a top European young player, and figures to factor into France’s future international teams. So if he was a 7/10 like Balbuena we can justify a .5 bump to adjust for him performing just as good as his partner but with higher expectations.

Diop hasn’t scored or assisted since he nailed a low driven shot into the bottom corner against AFC Wimbledon, but that’s okay. He’s doing his job defensively which is all West Ham need from him right now. Diop’s 6’4″ frame makes him a huge target and massive challenge to slip anything by in the air. The tenacity and physicality that Balbuena brings are matched perfectly by Diop’s size and melodic movements.

Diop and Balbuena could deserve higher rankings as they have been huge factors in West Ham going 2-1-1 in their last four matches, but it’s never a bad thing to have to continuously stay sharp to fully earn your praise. Diop has been a revelation for West Ham and looks poised to be a member of that backline for years to come.

Stats:

Games: 6
Clean sheets: 1
Tackles: 10 (60% success)
Interceptions: 9
Clearances: 32 (17 headed)
Recoveries: 23
Duels: 26-11
50/50s: 1
Aerial battles: 13-6
Own goals: 1
Passes 169 (28.17 avg. per game)

Angelo Ogbonna: 4/10

Previous: 3/10

Angelo Ogbonna has been the odd man out for West Ham’s centre-backs with Diop and Balbuena hogging all of the Premier League action. Ogbonna looked shaky and unreliable in West Ham’s first two matches and was subsequently dropped. He wasn’t able to read the game, looked unpredictable on set pieces, and was a foul risk regularly.

He did manage to start in West Ham’s Carabao Cup match against Macclesfield Town. West Ham pummeled the League Two side 8-0 with Oggy getting in on the goals from a corner that went undetected by the defense, allowing him to run onto it and shoot it in. He gets the upgrade for that and the fact that West Ham kept a clean sheet.

Stats: N/A

Honorable mentions that did not see any Premier League or Cup action: Reece Oxford (U23), Winston Reid.