6th December 2025 Daniel Luker (@danielluker_)
By Louis Nixon
El Hadji Malick Diouf had a tough time against Manchester United and struggled to get into the game, but had moments of glimmer.
At the beginning of the game, many feared that Malick Diouf wouldn’t be able to contain Bryan Mbuemo at Old Trafford, which Nuno certainly anticipated, as throughout the game it was Diouf, Todibo and Potts all marking the Cameroon international, allowing him to not get in behind.
One of the difficulties that Diouf faced was receiving a yellow card towards the end of the first half. It meant he had to be cautious throughout the remainder of the game and couldn’t risk lunging into challenges that he often makes, which work, but at Old Trafford, it was too risky to achieve.
There were a lot of calls for Diouf to be withdrawn at the break for Kyle Walker-Peters because he was really struggling to deal with Amad in the first half. However, Nuno kept him on and he did improve in the second 45 minutes.
It certainly wasn’t one of Diouf’s best games in a West Ham shirt, but the idea to drop the fallback after an underwhelming performance seems to be quite unfair and we might as well use him for as long as we’re able to, considering that he’ll be off to AFCON within the coming days.
Despite being criticised for his performance, Diouf managed 11 defensive contributions across the game and had the joint most aerial duels won on the pitch (3). He also provided Nuno’s side with an attacking aspect after he launched a handful of crosses into the box, but unfortunately, little to few were unable to convert them.
Overall, it was not all doom and gloom; it was certainly not an ideal performance, but Diouf offers an aspect of attack which has already proved to be crucial in creating chances across previous matches and hopefully, as time goes on, he will continue to do so.
Malick Diouf will leave West Ham at the latest, on the 15th December, as it is mandatory for all Premier League clubs to release their AFCON players by then, and when he returns is unknown at the moment. But, during that period, Walker-Peters or Ollie Scarles, if fit, will take up his starting spot.