Mentally Weak Player Ratings for West Ham in Sad Loss

Player ratings should be reserved for players and their performances. In this match West Ham had nearly neither as the Hammers failed the first test of the second half of the season, mentally cracking against a for-the-taking Liverpool B team.

Lukasz Fabianski – 5/10: Atrocious with his delivery today and clearly not organizing his backline correctly in front of him. He was sloppy with the ball, stuck to his line, and couldn’t come up with a save or splitting pass when needed.

Vladimir Coufal – 5/10: He was fine today and had a nice highlight of slamming Andy Robertson to the ground, but he second-guessed on delivering crosses and game too much room to the Liverpool attackers to create.

Craig Dawson – 6/10: Rescued by his late goal to make the scoreline a bit more respectable, Dawson had a great block in the first half and was victim of poor crossing which left his backline exposed and failed to get the ball to him.

A late goal from Craig Dawson brings his West Ham total to three on the season.

Angelo Ogbonna – 4/10: Better in the first half than the second, when the passing got too quick in tight, Ogbonna froze up and allowed far too much space to the Liverpool attackers to create and score goals. He was also inexplicably benign in the air, it was just an off game for him.

Aaron Cresswell – 4/10: A good block and a few solid defensive runs in the first half all collapsed as Cresswell couldn’t pick out a cross and paved the way for Mohammad Salah to open the scoring. Bad match from Cresswell.

Declan Rice – 5/10: Hampered by a yellow card that absolutely did not follow the precedent set by shambolic referee John Moss, Rice couldn’t get stuck in during the second half and it hamstrung his effectiveness.

Tomas Soucek – 5/10: Like Rice, Soucek picked up a yellow early in the second half and couldn’t make a challenge then under Moss’ uneven refereeing. Liverpool played around the middle of the pitch as much as possible and removed Rice and Soucek from the game.

Jarrod Bowen – 4/10: Ran his socks off but seemed to lose his energy after the 60th minute, getting beat by Robertson and Henderson in foot races. It was a boring and fruitless game from Bowen who needs to be better going forward. He was solid defensively, however.

Said Benrahma – 5/10: A few bits of skill opened up space for Benrahma and his teammates to move, but an unneeded touch took his best chance away in the Liverpool box and be never came close again. Benrahma needs to start taking his chances.

Pablo Fornals – 4/10: Very quiet and nearly invisible in this match. He was the first sub made by Moyes who tried to go two up top, and it was the right move because Fornals wasn’t able to get much going.

Michail Antonio – 3/10: He held his runs in the first half and wasted his chances in the second half. Horrible passing after strong hold-up play undid any forward progress by Antonio and he missed the net from 12 feet out front on a turning strike that is just unacceptable in a striker.

Substitutes:

David Moyes who has a lot to answer to after getting his tactics wrong in this match also needs to answer questions on why he chose to sub on the players he did. Andriy Yarmolenko on for Fornals was a fine and normal sub, but when down 2-0 why are Ryan Fredericks and Mark Noble coming on for Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen.

The game was lost at that point and the final two subs didn’t make a difference. Why not put on Lanzini to spark something? Why not see what Mipo Odubeko can do with twenty minutes? It was a mismanaged game that matched the awful player performances on the pitch.