It’s been the story of Soungoutou Magassa’s West Ham United career so far; one step forward followed by a stumble backwards in the wrong direction.

Just five days earlier at Craven Cottage, Magassa excelled in a 1-0 triumph away to Fulham. Shortly after Crysencio Summerville had put West Ham United ahead in a must-win encounter, the France Under-21 international entered the fray and helped see out the victory with a cameo of real class, control and composure.

Three attributes Soungoutou Magassa’s latest off-the-bench performance, during the FA Cup fifth round triumph over Brentford, was sorely lacking.

The jury is OUT on Sountougou Magassa! What have you made of him so far?

What does he need to improve to nail down a starting spot?

Mohamadou Kante excelled in his 76 minutes on the pitch. The same could not be said of his fellow Frenchman, Magassa replacing 20-year-old Kante towards the end of normal time.

If one moment summed up his most underwhelming of outings, it was when Magassa tried to whip a cross into the Brentford penalty area from the right-hand side.

Instead, he shanked it dreadfully out of play.

Soungoutou Magassa at risk of falling behind Mohamado Kante at West Ham United

Numerous other crosses were underhit, passes misplaced and tackles missed.

If Nuno Espirito Santo brought him on to help West Ham seize control in the centre of the park, that Magassa completed only 73 per cent of his 25 attempted passes was clearly not the impact the head coach was looking for.

“[Axel] Disasi and [Konstantinos] Mavropanos excelled in defence, [Jarrod] Bowen is back on song and the team is getting slicker. I did worry about Magassa though,” one TalkingPoint user writes.

“His passing and ball skills were concerning at times.

“Magassa worried me a lot, another agrees. “He really seemed to make too many errors. Most of the side put a huge shift in so it’s unfair to pick out any individual as it’s a team game. I’d give every player who took our penalties ten out of ten because I hate penalty shoot outs.

“But what a feeling to win one!”

The drop off from Kante to Magassa was stark

If West Ham held off a late Fulham charge partly because of Magassa’s calming influence at Craven Cottage, they beat Brentford despite him on Monday night.

That Kante was picked to start ahead of the £14 million summer signing in the first place, meanwhile, was hardly a ringing endorsement from his manager.

Kante has just given Nuno something to think about! 🇫🇷

What did you make of his performance?

“As soon as [Kante] went off, we looked different. Magassa was terrible,” one fan writes on our Facebook page.

“Kante was an ‘A’. Magassa, who replaced him, was a D-minus…”

“[Kante] played really well, better than Magassa.”

There was a spell, shortly after he was hauled off at half-time during the 3-0 defeat by Wolves two months ago, that Magassa appeared to fall to fourth-choice in Nuno’s pecking order. Now that Kante has proven he can influence games against top-flight opposition, it is difficult to imagine that things are going to get any easier from here on in.