Manuel Pellegrini lauds Grady Diangana’s display in West Ham defeat

Follow us on Google Discover

Grady Diangana was impressive as West Ham United were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.

In comments reported by Football London, Manuel Pellegrini has suggested that he was very pleased with Grady Diangana’s display during West Ham’s cup tie with Tottenham on Wednesday, particularly in the first-half.

The Hammers missed out on a place in the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup as Spurs left the London Stadium with a 3-1 victory. But there were certainly some positives for the home side who have now failed to win any of their last four games.

Diangana’s display was definitely one reason for optimism following the defeat. The youngster – whose debut came in the 8-0 win over Macclesfield in an earlier round of the same competition – caused Serge Aurier a number of problems early on, and could quite possibly be considered West Ham’s best player on the night.

And after the final whistle, Pellegrini was full of praise for the 20-year-old’s performance on what was a disappointing night for the Irons.

“Yes. In the first half he played very well, after that he felt a little pace of the game maybe but I always felt that he has the ball and he does good things with the ball,” he said, as reported by Football London.

“I think he was very confident, he has a lot of confidence for me, the technical staff and in himself as well.”

It is remarkable how quickly Diangana has become an important part of the first-team at the London Stadium given that his senior debut came little more than a month ago.

The starlet is currently overshadowing a number of much more established attacking players within the West Ham squad, and that should encourage the large number of talented prospects looking to break into Pellegrini’s plans in the future.