'That's how you respond' - Roshane Thomas hails West Ham colossus who won 100% of duels today

West Ham defender Issa Diop came in for plenty of flak over his display against Kidderminster in the FA Cup recently, but he elicited some rather more cerebral reactions to his performance in Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Leicester City.

Indeed, his overall performances throughout the campaign have left a lot to be desired, as evidenced by him ranking among the Irons’ poorer performers as per WhoScored metrics.

The 25-year-old was not earmarked to start initially but came into the line-up when Kurt Zouma fell ill before kick-off, and he duly seized his unexpected opportunity to prove a point to his critics, and indeed to his manager David Moyes.

The Athletic’s West Ham correspondent Roshane Thomas picked out Diop for praise in his full-time summary of an eventual match via Twitter, as the Frenchman’s defensive colleague Craig Dawson rescued a point for the visitors with a stoppage time equaliser.

The journalist gave this assessment of the match, and some standout performers, on social media at full-time: “FT: #LCFC 2-2 #WHUFC. Benrahma was great when he came on. It felt like he had a point to prove. Happy for Diop. That’s how you respond to criticism.

“Goal and assist from Bowen who continues his great form. Performance could have been better but got the all important point.”

Diop’s confidence could have been on the floor after his poor performance in the FA Cup last week, but instead he went to the King Power Stadium with a point to prove and he certainly proved it.

As per Sofascore, the 25-year-old won all three duels that he contested, completed 47 of his 51 passes (92%), made six clearances and two interceptions and even created one big chance, earning an overall performance rating of 7.4, second only to goalscorer Jarrod