**West Ham left-back El Hadji Malick Diouf wasn’t at his best on Friday night against Wolves, but should he be dropped against Crystal Palace on Monday?**
The Hammers thrashed bottom of the league Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-0 on Friday evening, a win that pushed the Hammers out of the relegation zone for the first time in 2026.
Despite the emphatic four goal win at the London stadium, like a lot of matches recently, the Hammers really didn’t impress at times, especially in the first half. A lot of players were off the ball, but one player’s poor performance that stood out in the first period was Malick Diouf.
It feels harsh to dig out the 20-year-old, he’s had an impressive first season in the Premier League after joining from Slavia Prague, he has definitely been better than a lot of us expected.
However, at times his lack of experience and quality on the ball has showed, and we saw that on Friday especially in the first half. He was dispossessed on a couple of occasions when he really didn’t need to be, he didn’t manage to complete one dribble. Also a couple of simple passes went wayward which put the team on the back foot.
This really wouldn’t be a problem if we were in form and didn’t need everyone playing at their best to make sure we stay in the Premier League. Yes, we still managed to win and Diouf did improve a lot in the second half, however, if that was a better side with a better right winger, we could have paid the price.
Despite his poor first 45, I don’t think it’s anything to worry about necessarily, I would drop him in favour of Aaron Wan-Bissaka on Monday against Crystal Palace. Not really because of his performance, but because Wan-Bissaka will be a better option defensively against the likes of Ismaila Sarr and Yeremy Pino.