For a very brief moment, Konstantinos Mavropanos and El Hadji Malick Diouf felt they had made amends during West Ham United’s 3-0 defeat by Brentford.
Mavropanos inadvertently gave Keith Andrews’ side the lead with an unfortunate own goal a quarter of an hour in.
Neutrals who spotted the name of the Greek international feature on the home section of the scoresheet would be forgiven for assuming he was to blame, but former West Ham United centre-back Matthew Upson found himself asking questions of El Hadji Malick Diouf instead.
Who was West Ham’s WORST player vs Brentford and why?! 👀
Diouf was in no-man’s land as Michael Kayode arrived at the back post shortly before the home side’s opener. Ironically, the left-back would then assist what briefly appeared to be a fairly immediate equaliser.
West Ham United see the good and bad of El Hadji Malick Diouf
Mavropanos was very nearly on the scoresheet at the right end when he thumped a delicious Diouf free-kick past Caoimhin Kelleher. The VAR eventually ruled that Mavropanos – by the width of his cheekbone – had strayed narrowly offside.
But while some may use such an incident as fuel for their anti-VAR arguments, a damaging loss in West London also summed up both the attacking pros and the defensive cons of El Hadji Malick Diouf.
A full-back who can create moments of genuine, game-changing brilliance with his left peg. But a full-back who, at just 21 and in his first season in English football, is still prone to the kind of lapses one usually expects from a player so inexperienced.
Diouf’s defensive deficiencies are a ‘big problem’, to quote former Manchester United winger Karol Poborsky. He is well-placed to comment, having watched the Senegal international closely during his formative spell at Slavia Prague in the Czech Republic.
Diouf gifted Arsenal a penalty during October’s 2-0 defeat at the Emirates and he was the culprit again as West Ham travelled to another London neighbour. Sliding in recklessly, all Dango Ouattara had to do was use Diouf’s momentum against him. He wiped out the Brentford winger for what surely goes down as one of the most clear-cut, highly-avoidable spot-kicks of the campaign.
West Ham aired their grievances towards referee Craig Pawson after Tomas Soucek was denied a penalty at the other end, but the spot-kick converted coolly by Igor Thiago was fairly cut and dry.
Diouf could face Arsenal and Bukayo Saka next weekend
Where do you sit right now on Malick Diouf’s performances?
Saka and Arsenal are coming up next… 😓
Nuno, then, may have something of a dilemma ahead of the final three matchdays.
Does he stick with Diouf? Or, perhaps, could he be tempted to bring Ollie Scarles back into the team after he impressed during the Africa Cup of Nations? Scarles offers far less creativity, but is a fairly diligent one-v-one defender.
Ezra Mayers has looked very solid in his first-team appearances too, albeit Arsenal would be comfortably the biggest challenge of his young career.
Now, Diouf remains the full-back with the joint-most assists in the Premier League [five]. He can create goals out of nothing on the left. On the other hand, Diouf’s tendency to switch off in his own defensive third casts serious doubt about his ability to combat the qualities of, say, Bukayo Saka or Jacob Murphy.
Both Saka and Murphy provided assists this weekend. They are also the two right-wingers West Ham will likely face in their next two Premier League games.
One thing is for sure; a side who had five clean sheets in ten league matches before travelling to Brentford can afford few defensive calamities like this.
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