news-engine

← burnley

'Bite their hand off' - Do West Ham need a left-back after Burnley disaster? - The West Ham Way

The West Ham Way · Daniel Luker · 2026-08-18T15:22:57+00:00 · nguồn gốc

Both Ollie Scarles and El Hadji Malick Diouf have come under criticism after the opening day 2-2 draw at Burnley. After going 2-0 up thanks to goals from Maxmillian Kilman and Manor Solomon, Hammers fans were buzzing thinking they were on their way to earning three points. However, a mix of poor decisions from Nuno and the players ended up costing us two points. The first of those bad decisions came at half-time as Nuno decided to sub on Ward-Prowse for the injured Pablo and play him at right midfield. Once again, like last season, his defensive substitions cost us points. The first real bad decision on the pitch, after having quite a good start to the game was from Ollie Scarles. He slid in on Marcus Edwards in the penalty area when he really didn’t need to and ended up giving away a silly penalty to give the Clarets a goal back. Then after that, it was a complete onslaught from Burnley on the West Ham goal. No one wanted to take any responsibility, we completely bottled it. Malick Diouf only came on in the 87th minute, and that was enough for a lot of West Ham fans to want him out the door. You could tell he doesn’t want to be here. He came on for Scarles for more defensive protection, who’s head had absolutely gone after giving away the penalty, but he was even worse. After putting in a cross which in fairness wasn’t a bad ball, a counterattack was on. The ball came to him and he just kicked at it with no effort letting Burnley in on the defence, it was pathetic. I thin Diouf and Scarles is more than good enough left-back depth and quality of the Championship. However, if Diouf doesn’t want to be here and fight for the badge to get us promoted then he can go. I’d much rather have someone like Harry Amass who wants to play for us over Diouf who thinks he’s too good to be playing at this level when he really isn’t. I wouldn’t say we need to bring in a left-back right now, but if Brentford or Sunderland do make a £35-40 million bid for him which has been rumoured, we should bite their hand off.