Stuart Pearce has hailed Issa Diop for delivering a ‘magnificent’ performance as West Ham beat Manchester United 1-0 to reach the Last 16 of the Carabao Cup, via football.london.
Manuel Lanzini broke the deadlock after just nine-minutes with his first goal since drawing 3-3 with Tottenham last October. The Hammers then battened down the hatches to deny the Red Devils a comeback with an impressive defensive performance.
Diop made only his second appearance of the campaign at Old Trafford following his term debut against Dinamo Zagreb. David Moyes has been awash with central defensive options, with Angelo Ogbonna, Craig Dawson and £30m signing Kurt Zouma available.
Diop considerably impressed Pearce with his performance as West Ham beat Manchester United. With Moyes’ assistant coach noting he did his chances of further minutes no harm.
Pearce said: “We’ve got a real strong situation at the heart of our defence. Craig Dawson has come in and been magnificent since he’s come into the club. Ogbonna has been brilliant and, obviously, Kurt’s come to join us as well, and [Aaron] Cresswell can play in that situation if we need a three.
“But tonight I thought he [Diop] was absolutely magnificent. The longer the game went on, the more of a colossus he looked at the back, and he’s still in, relative terms, a very young man for a central defender.
“So, we’re absolutely delighted to have Issa at this club. And that performance tonight just puts more pressure on the manager to say: ‘Look, we’ve got four really good central defenders at this club and selection is up there’. But Issa has done himself no harm, the same as Dawson has tonight with their performances, they were magnificent.”
Should Diop retain his place in West Ham defence after Pearce praise?
Moyes started Dawson and Ogbonna in each of the Hammers’ opening four games of the Premier League season. He replaced the former with Zouma against Manchester United last Sunday. Diop will hope he now gets chances to feature for West Ham in the top-flight after impressing Pearce in the Carabao Cup. He had only played 90-minutes prior this term.
Diop was superb throughout the Old Trafford affair on Wednesday night, showing a vast improvement to last season. The Frenchman was inconsistent when called on over his 21 outings in 2020/21, occasionally commanding but also on the wrong wavelength at times.
The 24-year-old struck a strong partnership with Dawson on Wednesday, however, and produced an important block to deny Jesse Lingard. He also made a game-high seven clearances, joint-high three interceptions and no player dribbled past him, per WhoScored.
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