OPINION
West Ham defender Issa Diop should feel aggrieved over Alan Shearer omitting him from his Premier League Team of the Week while having enough room to feature Tottenham’s Toby Alderweireld.
The Premier League legend’s latest Team of the Week was shared via the league’s official Twitter account and it was a surprise not to see Diop’s name feature, especially with Alderweireld making the cut.
The 21-year-old centre-back was phenomenal against Spurs on Saturday despite his side losing 1-0 to their London rivals and impressed for many reasons.
Diop, who has featured nine times for the club since joining in the summer, looked comfortable on the ball and set his side on the attack with clever passes and constantly won his tackles.
Aside from that the Hammers enforcer was able to keep Tottenham forward Harry Kane pretty much in his back pocket for the majority of the game and that’s not an easy task.
The English international has scored five goals in nine league outings this season and everyone at this point should know he’s a world class talent.
However you wouldn’t have thought that on Saturday due to the way Diop was able to keep him at bay with ease.
While some may look to pan Kane for his quiet display, it’s the Hammers centre-back who deserves the praise for ensuring the star Tottenham man had a disappointing afternoon despite being on the winning side.
While Alderweireld was fantastic for Spurs and one of the reasons the Hammers came away with a defeat, even though they had lot of possession in the second-half, he didn’t standout as much as Diop.
The Hammers’ key attacker Marko Arnautovic still found a way to bypass him to have a couple of clear chances on goal and if it wasn’t for the display of Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, then Alderweireld wouldn’t have ended Saturday with a cleansheet.
Therefore Diop should feel aggrieved over not getting a place in Shearer’s Team of the Week especially as his Tottenham rival, Alderweireld, made it ahead of him.
