‘Bad’ West Ham duo slammed in Burnley win as summer signing’s ‘big problem’ rears its head

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Even on West Ham United’s better days – Nuno Espirito Santo’s men made it two Premier League wins out of two against Burnley at the London Stadium – mistakes are never too far away.

Just to offer Hammers News readers a little peek behind the curtain, goalkeeper Alphonse Areola was on track for an 8/10 until he spilled a long shot at the feet of Josh Cullen with almost the last kick off the game.

Areola had produced a couple of stand-out moments as Burnley pushed for a leveller on the back of Tomas Soucek’s turning-point finish.

It would be unfair to say he undid all his good work – the experienced Frenchman kept the Clarets at arm’s length before Kyle Walker-Peters wrapped up an invaluable win – but he did ensure a nervy finish that West Ham United, their confidence brittle, could have done without.

The goal which put Burnley ahead, meanwhile, was oh-so familiar in the worst possible way. Deja vu in it’s most devastating form.

Nuno hailed a bounceback performance from Max Kilman against Newcastle. Six days later, though, those old frailties returned as Zian Flemming out-jumped the West Ham defender and guided a fine header past a helpless Areola.

Kilman received most of the blame but, as Matt Holland pointed out in Peacock’s live coverage, El Hadji Malick Diouf did not cover himself in glory either.

Matt Holland critical of Max Kilman and El Hadji Malick Diouf despite West Ham United win

After a superb start to life in East London, Czech legend Karel Poborsky saw Malick Diouf suffer greatly at the hands of Bukayo Saka during October’s 2-0 defeat at Arsenal. The former Slavia Prague left-back, Poborsky said, clearly still has ‘big problems’ when asked to do the defensive side of the game.

Diouf was handed another brutal learning curve with 35 minutes gone against Burnley. He simply stood and watched as Lesley Ugochukwu clipped a cross onto the head of the grateful Flemming.

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher slammed a ‘passive’ Kilman when Nuno’s reign took a turn for the worse against Brentford. ‘Passive’ would have been a pretty apt description of Diouf’s defending, too, on a day when West Ham needed the instincts of Callum Wilson and Tomas Soucek to bail out their error-prone backline.

“That shake of the head says it all,” West Ham academy graduate and ex-Charlton captain Holland said as a disbelieving Nuno was spotted looking incredulous on the touchline.

“He knows how bad this goal is for West Ham to concede. There was an eternity to [produce] the cross. And, once the ball goes in, you’ve got to attack it as a centre-half.

“Impossible for Areola to react but, from a defensive perspective, you’ve got to compete better than that when the ball goes into the box.”

Nuno Espirito Santo paid tribute to Callum Wilson and Tomas Soucek

Goals win games, though, and West Ham would triumph by the odd one in five. Tomas Soucek and Callum Wilson are no spring chickens, of course, but those penalty area instincts never leave you.

“Callum and Tomas, they have this knowledge inside the box to occupy the right spaces,” a relieved Nuno said at full-time. “I’m delighted [to see both of them find the net]. Callum, our striker, needs to score. His confidence is growing.

“It’s a good day for us. A very good day.”

Wilson reacted quickest at the back post to turn in a deflected Crysencio Summerville cross just nine minutes after Flemming’s opener. And, after he stepped off the bench to put the Hammers ahead for the first time, Soucek inadvertently set-up Walker-Peters’ tap-in as Martin Dubravka spilled his speculative daisy-cutter.

“It was Tomas and Kyle [as well as Wilson] who won us the game. And that shows that we’re going to need everybody,” the Portuguese added. “This unity, this feeling that we are slowly building among ourselves.

“I think we can see some improvements in our boys. This is what we’ve been focused on individually, but we cannot [get carried away].

“There were moments, especially in the beginning of the game, that I think we didn’t start well. We let Burnley have the ball, so it’s hard to adjust. We can see it once again.

“It’s a positive to react to the goal the way we did it, immediately with offensive actions, creating chances and scoring, but it’s something that we have to look at as a team. It’s not always going to be possible to react, so we have to try and change that situation.

“But overall, we’re delighted for the boys. Again, there were tough moments in the end, but we got ourselves a good result.”