Kudus dreadful in 3/10, Areola shines – West Ham player ratings v Brentford. Mohammed Kudus was dreadful as West Ham were beaten 1-0 by Brentford in the Premier League.
Kevin Schade opened the scoring in the first five minutes at the London Stadium on Saturday 15 February. Alphonse Aréola appeared to have made a superb triple save, but goal-line technology revealed that the ball had snuck in at the third time of asking. The Bees thought they had doubled their lead on two separate occasions, but Yoane Wissa was denied by an offside flag both times, with Graham Potter’s side offering next to nothing in the game and fortunate to only be a goal down at the break.
Lucas Paquetá in particular was poor in the first half, and despite the Hammers improving in the second, they were unable to find an equaliser as Thomas Frank’s side held on for all three points.
Here, West Ham Zone rates each player’s performance out of 10.
Alphonse Aréola shines for West Ham v Brentford
Alphonse Aréola – 8
Made two fantastic saves and was unlucky to be beaten by the narrowest of margins at the third time of asking for Brentford’s opening goal. Chipped in with a couple more saves to help keep the score down.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka – 5
Didn’t do too much wrong defensively and made an important last-man tackle. Could have offered more quality in the final third.
Konstantinos Mavropanos – 6
Made a sluggish start to the match, as did most of the West Ham players, but grew into the game and made some important defensive actions.
Max Kilman – 6
Similar to Mavropanos, struggled in the first half, and was guilty of a few poor decisions as Brentford got forward with ease. However, he also improved as the match went on.
Emerson – 4
Hooked at the break after a relatively quiet first half.
Edson Álvarez – 5
Was too easy to play past in the first half. Survived the half-time exodus but didn’t offer much in the second.
Tomáš Souček – 5
Hardly made an impact before he was hooked at the break. Bypassed too easily at times in the middle of the park.
Jarrod Bowen – 5
A quiet afternoon by his standards. However, West Ham fans will forgive him as he has only just returned from injury.
Mohammed Kudus dreadful for West Ham v Brentford
Mohammed Kudus – 3
An awful performance from the Ghana international. He offered almost nothing going forward and was incredibly lazy with his defensive work. Needs to show serious improvement.
West Ham United forward Mohammed Kudus
West Ham United forward Mohammed Kudus [Credit: Imago]
Carlos Soler – 4
Like Emerson, didn’t offer much and was deservedly taken off at the break.
Lucas Paquetá – 5
Incredibly fortunate as he gave the ball away on the edge of the penalty area which allowed Brentford to score a second, but Yoane Wissa was just offside. Needs to offer much more considering his quality.
Subsitutes
James Ward-Prowse (On for Souček, HT) – 5
Helped West Ham improve in the second half and provided some quality in midfield. Will be looking to start more regularly.
Evan Ferguson (On for Soler, HT) – 5
Had a couple of chances which he would have hoped to do more with.
Oliver Scarles (On for Emerson, HT) – 5
Thrown in at the deep end and looked relatively solid. Luis Guilherme (On for Mavropanos, 88′) – N/A
