Vladimir Coufal badly disappoints in West Ham’s draw at Genk | OneFootball

West Ham all but sealed a place in the Europa League knockout stages after a 2-2 draw against Genk on Thursday night.

It wasn’t a performance that was up to the Irons’ usual standard, having squandered their 100% win and clean sheet record but the solitary point did put them one foot into the next round.

An inspired come-from-behind brace from Said Benrahma looked to be enough for the east Londoners to have sealed the victory but Tomas Soucek turned the ball into his own net three minutes from time in what was an unfortunate gaffe.

However, this moment was by no means the reason for the Hammers’ sub-par performance, especially as the Czech midfielder was only on the pitch for half an hour. Instead, there were plenty of others who let manager David Moyes down.

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One of which was arguably fellow countryman Vladimir Coufal, who made his first start since returning from injury. He was well off the pace and showed some signs of rust down that right flank.

His 6.5 rating on SofaScore was the second-lowest of any West Ham star behind Craig Dawson (6.3).

And it’s easy to see why as he was hugely wasteful in possession, losing the ball a squad-high 21 times from 52 touches, which in itself shows he was well behind his usual influential nature, having averaged nearly 65 touches per game in the Premier League in 2020/21.

1 of 10

Can you name all 10 ex-Hammers? First up... He assisted the first goal at the London Stadium but made only 8 appearances for the Irons, who is he?

Havard Nordtveit Gokhan Tore Pedro Obiang Jonathan Calleri

Elsewhere, he was equally lightweight in his battles, winning just one of his four duels (25%). The 29-year-old was also dribbled past twice and failed to provide a single accurate cross from two attempts – considering he delivered seven assists (second-most) last term, this was certainly a poor attacking display too.

To add further misery to his evening, Coufal missed one big chance – had that gone in, then we could very much be speaking differently about the result.