Green Street Hammers
Fansided

The Excellence of Issa Diop and Angelo Ogbonna

By George Grieve

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 22: Issa Diop of West Ham United (L) celebrates with Angelo Ogbonna of West Ham United after scoring his side's second goal during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Fulham FC at the London Stadium on February 22, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 22: Issa Diop of West Ham United (L) celebrates with Angelo Ogbonna of West Ham United after scoring his side's second goal during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Fulham FC at the London Stadium on February 22, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Due to West Ham’s recent bad run of form, it is beneficial to focus on the positives in order to remain hopeful. Therefore I have chosen to focus on the solid performances of West Ham’s two center-backs.

Issa Diop

The Frenchman arrived in East London in the summer of 2018 for a fee of around £22 million. He has had a lot of pressure put on his young shoulders by the media and West Ham fans alike being compared to the likes of Rio Ferdinand. He was also praised by none other than Jose Mourinho after the Hammers’ impressive win against Man United last season.

Mourinho described Diop as a ‘monster‘ before United tried to sign Diop this summer, eventually being put off by the Hammers’ hefty valuation. Diop seems to be loving life in East London and it will take a fee north of £70 million to acquire his signature.

Diop is extremely strong and fast and is still only 22-years-old. Last season he formed a pretty solid partnership with Fabian Balbuena although this season Pellegrini has experimented with Ogbonna and Diop as the 2 center-backs and they have done well.

The pair have kept three clean sheets and Diop is the only player to have played every minute for West Ham– he is crucial. The Frenchman has completed 2.9 tackles and interceptions per 90 minutes while Virgil Van Dijk has completed 1.8 and kept 2 clean sheets, this puts Diop’s numbers in context.

Diop has also won 40 duels and made 47 recoveries this season and when you remember that he is only 22, it is hard to disagree with people when they suggest that West Ham have a world-class prospect at center-half.

Diop has put in several outstanding performances this season and even when the rest of the team is poor, he usually still performs. Some great performances include Aston Villa away and Norwich at home.

Angelo Ogbonna

Many West Ham fans saw Ogbonna as surplus to requirements at the beginning of the season as he became a disappointing name to see on the team sheet last season due to some poor performances. However, Ogbonna has proved many West Ham fans wrong this season with some commanding displays.

He was Man of the Match against Norwich as he managed to keep the very in form Teemu Pukki quiet, he also performed well against Man United and don’t forget that he wasn’t playing in the 5-0 battering at the hands of Manchester City. Therefore it has been a very promising start for Ogbonna, let’s just hope he can maintain his form throughout the season.

The Italian is now 31 years of age so he’s coming to the twilight of his career, however, he is another strong leader and adds a calm head and wealth of experience to the team. He has formed a decent partnership with Diop and they compliment each other nicely as Diop can track runners and step out of defense with the ball while Ogbonna can hold the line and bully the opposition with his strength.

Next. The narrative surrounding West Ham United’s midfielders has changed. dark

It will be exciting to see the development of Issa Diop in a West Ham shirt and hopefully, the two Centre Backs can prevent West Ham from conceding too many goals and help them to achieve European football.