West Ham United started their pre-season campaign with a 1-1 draw against Southend at Roots Hall, Jarrod Bowen assisting Konstantinos Mavropanos after Kyle Walker-Peters had gifted the hosts lead.
Here is how Hammers News rated the 22 players selected by Nuno Espirito Santo.
Mads Hermansen – 6
Penalty went underneath him for the opener. Very little to do from open play. Distribution was good at times from West Ham United’s number one.
Kyle Walker-Peters – 3
Horribly mistimed tackle gifted Southend a 14th minute penalty. Dived in so recklessly. Had a torrid opening 20 minutes
The captain STAYS! How big of a coup is this for West Ham? 🥳
At the other end, created a chance Scarles slashed over.
Dinos Mavropanos – 7
Dominant in the air. West Ham finally have a goalscoring threat from centre-half, and Mavropanos greedily gobbled up a fine delivery from Jarrod Bowen on the stroke of half time.
Towering equaliser.
Max Kilman – 6
Not really tested defensively. Distribution was a mixed bag. Showed a lack of confidence at times, but did set Pablo away with a fine clipped ball over the top.
Ollie Scarles – 4
Both full-backs were really poor. Scarles constantly got forward but crosses lacked quality. Ballooned chance over the bar before Mavropanos scored.
Mohamadou Kante – 6
Kante is the man many feel will be West Ham’s breakout star this season. The former Paris FC kid was underwhelming for the first half hour here, though, before growing into things from then on.
Some lovely passes and put his physicality to good use but needs to be more involved. Booked after one cynical shirt-pull.
Keiber Lamadrid – 7, Man of the Match
The best player on the pitch. Lamadrid surprisingly started centrally alongside Kante, playing probing passes and skipping past Southend challenges.
Rattled the post with fizzing volley, then created chance for Pablo with a lovely slide-rule pass. West Ham need to replace Mateus Fernandes, and Lamadrid did a passable impression of the Portuguese here.
Even dropped in to create a three-man defence when West Ham had the ball on one occasion.
George Earthy – 5
Underwhelming.
Very quiet early on but then showed his quality in small spaces with a clever pass to create half-chance for Pablo. Got away with a loose touch in his own half as an attempted lob failed to test Hermansen.
More of an influence when he started to drift more centrally.
Jarrod Bowen – 7
No surprise it was he who assisted Mavropanos’ equaliser with a fine corner. Fizzing shot nearly put West Ham ahead early in the second half.
Bowen committed his future to the Hammers on Friday and received a grateful applause from the visiting fans.
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Pablo – 6
Typical Pablo. Plenty of effort, but a lack of real quality.
Drifted to the left a lot and did look likely to create something with his movement. Big chance to equalise before Mavropanos scored. Denied by fine save but his movement was really sharp.
Gilt-edge chance passed him by when Pablo appeared to hurt himself stretching for a back-post tap-in.
Taty Castellanos – 4
Quiet and rusty. Saw two shots blocked and drifted offside before another effort squirmed badly wide.
Substitutes – all came on midway through the second half
Finlay Herrick
Flapped at a cross but got away with it.
Ryan Battrum
Airidas Golambeckis
He and Casey combined to block what looked a certain goal after Herrick failed to deal with a delivery. Positioning was very impressive.
Kaelan Casey
See above.
Ezra Mayers
Preston Fearon
One lovely burst from the right-hand side but got over-excited and mishit his final pass.
James Ward-Prowse
Free-kick comfortably saved. The old head in a young XI following the chances, looked to take the game by the scruff of the neck.
Freddie Potts
Lewis Orford
Couldn’t quite take advantage after Marshall forced a mix-up.
Josh Ajala
Beat his full-back easily and fizzed in a cross that flashed beyond the face of goal. Really quick and positive.
Callum Marshall
As expected, pressed high and ran hard.
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