West Ham’s Arthur Masuaku was a liability against Leicester

by Danny Lewis

2 minute read 23/1/2020 | 07:15am

Arthur Masuaku put in a terrible performance before being taken off at half time during West Ham United’s 4-1 loss against Leicester City.

On the chalkboard

In truth, there were various displays that were under par from players in claret and blue, but the Democratic Republic of Congo international’s was especially bad.

His poor positioning played a part in both of the Foxes’ first two goals, while his decision-making on the ball was also far from great.

With that in mind, it is not too surprising that he was one of the two men that were brought off at half time, alongside Robert Snodgrass who had seemed to pick up a knock, with Michail Antonio and Pablo Fornals coming on to replace them, as David Moyes switched to a back four.

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Shocking performance

For the Foxes’ first goal, the 26-year-old was pulled out of position, which allowed Ricardo Pereira to get behind and dink the ball past Darren Randolph for Harvey Barnes to bundle over the line, while Masuaku stood by watching from the edge of the box.

For the second, Leicester’s Portuguese full-back provided a brilliant finish but the amount of space he had was ludicrous. While Aaron Cresswell was occupying Ayoze Perez in the box, Masuaku was in the centre of the pitch, and by the time he made a burst to interfere with his shot, it was futile.

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Looking at it statistically, Masuaku was successful in two of his three tackles, while also making one interception and one clearance, while he didn’t compete in any aerial duels.

As has already been mentioned, his decision-making on the ball was poor, which has been reflected in the fact that the international completed just one of his four attempted dribbles.

He did maintain a pass success rate of 81%, but no key passes were produced, offering an indication of his failure to make any real creative ground.

Meanwhile, West Ham are set to battle one of their relegation rivals for a £29.4m target.