4th November 2025 Daniel Luker (@danielluker_)
El Hadji Malick Diouf’s brilliant performance vs Newcastle United has gone under the radar because of an early mistake, but the left-back put in yet another monstrous performance.
Diouf arrived at West Ham without much expectation, because not many fans had seen him play before, but for £19m we hoped he’d become a starter, and he did exactly that straight away. His attacking output has been excellent, but the jury is still out on his defensive ability.
He has had a couple of dodgy moments in a claret and blue shirt so far, none more than the early goal we conceded against Newcastle on Sunday afternoon. The way he defended against the goalscorer Jacob Murphy was pathetic, he just let him get an open shot on goal.
However, despite the poor start, Diouf went on to have an incredible game against the Geordies. His statistics from the match were great and have been going round on social media with many Hammers fans again praising the signing.
Diouf had an excellent all-round performance. He won the most duel on the pitch with ten, he won back possession the most times with eight, the most tackles with six and completed the most take-ons, completing three of three attempted.
This shows the shire talent of the 20-year-old Senegalese international. he is certainly going to go on and become one of the best left-backs in the Premier League if he stays around, if he isn’t already. But being so young in defence is always going to come with mistakes and he’ll grow out of that the more he plays. But his attacking qualities and defensive numbers like he had on Sunday more than makes up for a few mistakes.