Last year, all the hype was about our talented French-born midfielder Mohamed Diame and our desperation to retain him. He came storming into our midfield in 2012, and brought with him control, determination, and a lot of talent. Even though he spent a chunk of last season injured, he contributed strongly to our season and chalked up quite a few awards at the end of it (Hammers’ Goal of the Season [v Manchester United], Best Signing, and Best Individual Performance [v Chelsea].) Not bad for a debut season, but as hard as it is to start strong, it’s even harder to play just as well in your second year and try to better your own performance.
With that in mind, this season, will Diame prove to be the same enigmatic player as last year, or will he suffer from sophomore syndrome and struggle to set the field alight while he’s out there?
He, like most of the rest of the squad, has not been quite up to scratch for the first few games this year. In the match reports for the first few games of the season Diame’s name is barely mentioned, and I think we can all agree that it was not his finest moment when, against Stoke City, he was adjudged to have fouled Glenn Whelan on the edge of the box, giving away the free kick that led to Pennant’s goal.
But as the season has gone on, Diame has started putting in better and better performances- and he really has been working hard. Diame regularly plays around 70-80 min per game, which is reportedly due to a heart condition (Daily Mail, talkSPORT)- but yet he played a full 90 minutes against Everton and then days later played nearly 40 minutes against Cardiff City in the Capitol One Cup. Seeing him rack up nearly 130 minutes in 4 days was unusual- but it was also a very impressive show of strength. Although the Hull City game was dire (to say the least) Diame was a bright spark, and very nearly scored on two occasions.
It was in Saturday’s absolutely stunning triumph over Spurs that Diame really came to life. He certainly did not look at his most comfortable in the opening 20 minutes (as you would expect from a defensive midfielder pretending to be a forward) but even so we still saw brilliance from him. He passed well, turned wonderfully with the ball and created some great runs- in particular, his touch and flick to Ravel Morrison, which resulted in Morrison’s fantastic goal.
Even if he wasn’t in the top 5 contenders for West Ham United’s Official Man of the match, he put in a performance to be proud of on Sunday, and I was sorry to see him subbed off towards the end (although completely understood the need to pop another defender on there at that stage of the game.)
So is Diame the same player from last season? He may have gotten off to a slightly lack lustre start, but he’s getting better and better- and he may end up being even better than he was last year. Watch this space!
I agree that Mo has upped his game. It began when Morrison started to play. 2 reasons. First, Diame realised that his name might not always be on start sheet. Second, Morrison has the type of game that suits Diame and they have a great understanding. Long may it continue!
He’s been great, again.
Diamé played full 90 minutes every week for Wigan (until he refused to sign a new contract) and plays 90 minutes every game for Senegal. Maybe the difference is they both play possession football. Amazing how much energy you save when your teams got the ball.