Here is how the major newspapers and media outlets rated West Ham’s players in their Round 2 clash against Brighton at the Amex on Saturday afternoon.
Manuel Pellegrini, clearly disappointed with his side’s second half capitulation against City, rang in the changes, with five new faces in the starting XI. West Ham started with wbat looked like a 4-1-4-1, with Pablo Fornals operating on the left, Robert Snodgrass on the right, and Manuel Lanzini and Jack Wilshere on either side of Declan Rice. Somewhat surprisingly, Javier Hernandez was named as the sole striker, on his own upfront against the tall Brighton CB trio of Shane Duffy, Lewis Dunk and Dan Burn.
After an underwhelming first half, Pellegrini brought on Michail Antonio for Wilshere at the break. That forced a reshuffle to a 4-4-2 of sorts, with Fornals moving to the right, Snodgrass in the centre and Lanzini to the left. West Ham took the lead against the run of play after some delightful work from Lanzini, but Brighton were level four minutes later through debutant Leandro Trossard.
Coming into this clash, no Brighton manager had won in his first league fixture at home since Peter Taylor in 2001 and neither had the Seagulls ever lost a Premier League game under Anthony Taylor. With the 1-1 draw, both records stayed intact.
Here is a look from West Ham’s player ratings from four different media outlets (plus a combined average). Not surprisingly, Lukasz Fabianski was their best player on show. The Polish stopper was also the only Hammers player to get above 7, with the Mirror and Football.London both rating his performance as worthy of a 8.
Declan Rice and Manuel Lanzini were the next best players on show. Despite his defensive gaffes, Arthur Masuaku’s work on the attacking front (touches, dribbles), saw him get an average rating of 6.25
The poorest West Ham player on show was Jack Wilshere, who failed to impress for the second week running, and got a 5 from every paper.
Speak Your Mind