I suppose it should be no surprise to see Mateus Fernandes play well in a West Ham shirt — after all, the young Portuguese midfielder is one of the club’s most expensive ever signings.
That said, at just 21 years of age and with a relegation already on his CV from his debut Premier League season, nothing was guaranteed.
Yesterday, Fernandes was named Man of the Match following West Ham’s hard-fought 3-2 win over Burnley at the London Stadium. His performance came just a week after Freddie Potts picked up the same award — a sign of real progress in Nuno Espirito Santo’s developing midfield.
Fernandes at the Heart of It
Fernandes’ influence on the game was immense. The former Southampton man didn’t misplace a single forward pass all afternoon, ensuring West Ham made full use of their possession. But it wasn’t just about neat passing — ‘Matty’ also won every loose ball he contested and finished the match top of the charts for duels won.
Add to that his intelligent movement and the way he carried the ball up the pitch, and it was a complete performance. The numbers simply backed up what was obvious to anyone watching — from my seat high in the stand, Fernandes looked to be running the game from a West Ham perspective.
Lucas Paquetá might not have had his best outing, but Potts once again impressed in a deeper role, breaking up play and providing balance. Thankfully, his late knock didn’t appear too serious, as he was seen walking comfortably and applauding the fans at full-time.
Freddie Potts walked onto the pitch to clap West Ham fans at the end
A Midfield Taking Shape
The biggest takeaway from this match was simple — West Ham finally have a functioning midfield. Fernandes and Potts are forming a partnership that combines energy, precision, and control, and if the pair keep turning in man-of-the-match performances, then (fingers crossed) the Hammers should have enough to steer clear of trouble this season.
Fernandes and Potts have been a breath of fresh air at last week’s have two players who have all the skill base needed to run the midfield let’s hope we can hang onto them both a good transfer window in January and we will no doubt pull well away from the relegation zone that’s if Sullivan doesn’t go back on his word which he does more often than not as fans we need to be totally behind the manager and the team but we need Sullivan and Brady gone along with the other board members if we are to realise our clubs full potential
Our midfield was a snail paced nightmare. Any combination of JWP, Rodriguez and Soucek was too slow. They were too easily overrrun put excess pressure on the defence. Any combination of Fernandes, Potts, Magassa is far more dynamic. JWP and Rodriguez need to go, Soucek is too slow for a midfield role but does have other real strengths to his game.
Agree Fernandes looks like just what we needed. It somehow makes the Potter reign weirder though. He and Macauley identified him as a target and he was not an obvious one, I’d barely noticed him. And to be fair apart from the GK they brought in decent players. Potter gets the money to bring him in then doesn’t really play him.
All weird. He must of known we needed this kind of player before the season started, it seems the club did have the money so why didn’t he insist before the start of the season. Why did we suddenly have the money, and why didn’t he play him every minute he could.
His no centre forward and the same midfield as last year tactics seem like he wanted to get sacked.
It’s really hard to understand how the club works.