OPINION

West Ham drew 1-1 with Leicester City on Saturday despite the odds being stacked against them during the game.

The Hammers were unable to hold onto their narrow victory after going ahead as they had to play with 10-men for a large portion of the game due to Mark Noble foolishly getting himself sent off in the 38th minute.

Given the nature of the performance, Manuel Pellegrini would have learnt a lot about his team especially when it comes to working out who has the right attitude when the team are up against it.

Forever West Ham have rounded up three things learned from the Hammers’ display against Leicester:

Declan Rice is the future

Declan Rice is clearly the future at the Hammers as he proved once again that he was a player who could be counted on. The promising enforcer may have had his job made harder by Noble getting sent off but you wouldn’t have known that from watching his display. Rice submitted a mature performance which made him able to control the midfield and stop the Foxes getting back into the game. Given his young age then Rice is no doubt only going to get better and with that being the case, it’s clear he is a player who can lead the Hammers into a bright future. Also as he showed he is able to cope when the odds are stacked against his side, you can imagine him pulling on the captain’s armband one day.

Hernandez blew chance

Javier Hernandez is a waste of a shirt. The 5ft 8in tall forward (Source: Transfermarket) got a rare chance to start a league game due to Marko Arnautovic being unavailable and he blew his chance. As his teammates weren’t putting chance after chance on a plate for him, Hernandez seem uninterested. This was a terrible attitude to have as after seeing Noble get sent off then surely Hernandez should have started to work harder to help his teammates defend their lead. However it was like once he discovered he couldn’t get the headlines, he put down his tools and waited for Pellegrini to hook him off for his lacklustre performance. The Hammers were practically playing with nine-players when he was on the pitch due to his lack of desire to run and it would be good if he is not seen in the first-team for a while.

Anderson struggles defensively

With the Hammers having their backs against the wall due to being player down, everyone needed to chip in defensively. This memo didn’t seem to reach Felipe Anderson as he didn’t really in put the shift he needed to put in. The Brazilian winger seemed content to let his teammates struggle on while he lurked waiting for an opportunity to attack. The Brazilian should have tracked back more, not jogged back like he opted to at times, to help the Hammers get their vital win over the line. Anderson is clearly a fabulous attacking prospect but he showed against the Foxes that the defensive side of his game is not up to scratch.