West Ham returned from the international break with a vital but unspectacular win over relegation rivals Southampton on Sunday. The result takes the Hammers up to 14th and will have eased the immediate pressure on David Moyes but, with tougher games to come, the Scot will need his side to back this result up with points against both Newcastle and Fulham this week. West Ham struggled for rhythm in the opening period of Sunday’s game but managed to go ahead against the run of play through Nayef Aguerd before setting about spoiling the match to protect their lead. Both Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paquetá could have made the points certain but the game rumbled on to a nervy conclusion where Southampton were perhaps a tad unfortunate to not nick a point after Paul Onuachu’s 86th minute header clattered off the crossbar.
Łukasz Fabiański – 8
Returning as first-choice keeper after a nasty facial injury sustained against Nottingham Forest, Fabiański made a crucial save to deny Romain Perraud an equaliser immediately after Aguerd’s opening goal. If West Ham do manage to stay up this season, this might be one of the pivotal moments that we’ll reflect on.
Thilo Kehrer – 6
It was his excellent delivery for the goal but Kehrer once again looked like the weakest link in the backline as he was dribbled past or outmuscled far too easily several times in the match. Perraud should have made more of a late attack where he surged inside Kehrer and into the box but Southampton’s danger-man against West Ham gave the ball straight to Flynn Downes in keeping with the theme of Saints’ general final third ineptitude. Kehrer does deserve credit for major improvements in his aerial duels at the back post in this match with a couple of difficult and well-managed clearing headers, and fans will be pleased by some of his surges forward even if his run through on goal and shot assist for Saïd Benrahma were both clumsy, but the full-back will need to tighten up on those defensive mistakes if he is to make the position his own in the long-term.
Kurt Zouma – 6
Zouma made one important intervention to stop Moi Elyounoussi from feeding Sékou Mara through in the sixth minute but the Frenchman was otherwise comfortable and looks to have developed a strong partnership with Aguerd already.
Nayef Aguerd – 7
Aguerd finally got his first goal in claret and blue on Sunday after an interminable VAR check and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the team. His threat from set-pieces has been one of the many elements of his game that we have missed thanks to his injury issues this season but he should still already be on a few having missed some handy chances before this one. His all-round performance was impressive in this match with some well-timed interventions stepping out of the defensive line and some quality moments on the ball too. However, he was fortunate to get away with a handful of defensive mistakes when both Onuachu and Kyle Walker-Peters failed to convert late on when Aguerd was beaten in the air and struggled to clear the second ball.
Emerson Palmieri – 7
After a bit of a slow start, which can be said for virtually everyone, Emerson quickly asserted himself as a major threat down West Ham’s left-hand side and the Italian’s combination play with Benrahma caused Walker-Peters and Southampton issues throughout much of the match. It’s Emerson’s ability to take the ball under pressure and play up the line before surging forwards on an underlapping run that makes him such a threat but he will need to increase the reliability of his final delivery at the end of that positive work. There was one cross that went mostly uncredited that looked destined for Bowen or Danny Ings if not for crucial interventions from James Ward-Prowse and Elyounoussi. His short corner combination with Benrahma before finding Zouma was also very neat.
Tomáš Souček – 2
One of the weakest individual performances from any player so far this season, Souček really struggled to have any impact on Sunday’s game. To begin with, he continually found himself pressing in advanced positions as part of West Ham’s off-ball 4-1-4-1 shape that collapses into a 4-3-2-1 when faced with opposition box midfields but the Czech was shredded by Roméo Lavia in their regular individual duels. After the goal, he was largely deployed as a number ten or striker in a 4-2-3-1/4-4-2 shape and, whilst this change of formation saw improvements from most of the players around him, Souček continued to struggle off the ball and Lavia kept up the torture with smart runs into the space behind him and an aggressiveness in the duels that the West Ham man couldn’t match. This is without mentioning his dire in-possession play which contained multiple passes that travelled straight out of play and a missed opportunity to slot home from Bowen’s 66th minute cutback – the kind of chance you’d just expect Souček to gobble up.
Declan Rice – 7
Rice struggled in the first half, like most of his teammates, with the intensity of Southampton’s press and the lack of structural support to be able to progress without launching long balls up to Ings. But even so, there were plenty of opportunities for him to turn out as the recipient of a press-breaking pass with the captain too often opting to go back into that pressure by firing the ball back into the defenders or turning away from the follow-up press from Lavia or Ward-Prowse. With Southampton often exposed, due to the commitments they make high and narrow when pressing, these were moments where forward thrust from Rice could have changed the momentum of the game – it was somewhat fortunate that a set-piece goal would alleviate the pressure and create the circumstances within which West Ham could relax and exert more control. Still, despite complaints over how he managed the Saints press, Rice performed well and contributed significantly from a defensive perspective. As Souček and Paquetá both found themselves caught upfield with the centre exposed he made numerous key interventions, including a smartly timed tackle to deny Armstrong progression to the penalty area after a quick throw that caught Aguerd napping.
Lucas Paquetá – 6
A real game of two halves for Lucas Paquetá who was equally as bad as his advanced midfield counterpart in the first half. In this easily manipulated 4-1-4-1, the Brazilian seems utterly lost positionally and is absurdly easy to ghost past – in that first 45 he failed to track runs, left chasms of space exposed with regularity, and went charging into pressures he could never realistically win. Paquetá has received praise for the volume of tackles and ball-winning actions he recorded in Sunday’s match but this work has to be done with some intelligence to have real use in securing possession, interrupting opposition build-up or progression, and/or creating transitional moments of opportunity – Paquetá brought this to a much higher standard in the second half when paired with Rice from a deeper starting position. In this shape, he was better able to assess the space ahead of him and make improved decisions in his pressures. His in-possession contribution was strong as he regularly picked neat passes to launch attacks and found one lovely pass for Bowen to run through on goal.
Jarrod Bowen – 8
Another impressive performance from Bowen without the goals or assists to show for it. He won the free-kick that led to the goal in a hairy collision with Duje Ćaleta-Car, made a brilliantly committed block to stop a Perraud long-ranger (righting the wrong of the first fixture), hit the bar after twisting beyond the Southampton left-back on a counter (he might have passed to Paquetá but this was still a great effort), swivelled nicely to play Ings through on another promising counter, squared perfectly for an absent Souček to slot home, and held the ball up fantastically in the final stages to frustrate Southampton. An excellent display.
Danny Ings – 5
Ings ran tirelessly in the first half at the top of a dysfunctional press and then faded into the second 45 where his defensive positioning grew increasingly problematic before he was replaced by Michail Antonio in the 65th minute. In terms of what he offers in possession, when the team doesn’t have the confidence, licence, or tactical and positional flexibility to progress with the ball on the deck, it is utterly pointless to play Ings as a lone striker and hit long passes up to him or into the channels. He might possess the predatory finishing that evades Michail Antonio but he doesn’t have the physical dynamism to get himself, or the team, into any of those positions in the first place.
Saïd Benrahma – 7
As mentioned with others, after a very slow start where Benrahma was too passive both in and out of possession, the Algerian picked up speed and soon established himself as a strong creative threat on the left. His combinations with Emerson were excellent as he continually released the Italian into positive positions but he also played some fantastic incisive passes to put Kehrer and Bowen through late in the first half. There were some flicks and tricks and a couple of shots that went close but the most pleasing elements of this performance were his quietly solid defensive positioning throughout the second half and some sound decision-making in difficult situations like a 69th minute carry to the byline to win a corner when isolated.
Michail Antonio – 5
Struggled to make it stick but presented a more dynamic threat on counter-attacks.
Flynn Downes – 5
Very little impact but steadier than Souček.
Pablo Fornals, Aaron Cresswell – N/A
