Just twenty minutes before the kick off yesterday, Nuno Espirito Santo was forced into a wholesale rejig of his side, thanks to the injury suffered by Jean Clair Todibo: Apparently the defender ‘felt something’ in his calf and was forced to sit out the Villa Park encounter.
Intriguingly, Freddie Potts was drafted into the side as the last minute change. Surely there was a like-for-like replacement already on the bench in Maximilan Kilman? Replacing a centre back with another centre back would have seemed logical and saved the wholesale squad reboot which Nuno claimed was a contributory factor to his sides’ poor first half display.
Kilman was ready to go yet Nuno Espírito Santo ignored him yesterday and rejigged the whole squad
Newspapers go much further in their interpretation of the West Ham manager’s decision to overlook Kilman. In the nytimes.com this morning:
“Before Todibo pulled up on Sunday, Kilman — who was named on the bench — had performed a running drill with fellow outfield substitutes Callum Wilson, Kyle Walker-Peters, Adama Traore, Ollie Scarles, Mohamadou Kante and Soungoutou Magassa.
Looks as if Nuno has decided Kilman’s finished at West Ham
Kilman coming in for Todibo would have been a like-for-like change. But Nuno had other ideas. Freddie Potts, the midfielder and academy graduate, would be Todibo’s replacement. The tactical switch saw West Ham revert from a back three to a back four, which led to their first league defeat since February 28 against Liverpool.
Kilman’s long-term future already looked bleak irrespective of West Ham’s league status beyond May, but this confirmed that his familiarity with the bench is unlikely to change.”
It is a pretty clear statement of Nuno’s opinion of his £40 million defender who was a mainstay of the Lopetegui and Potter eras. Being warned up, ready to go and ignored is a stark stamens from the Hammers manager. As the NY times concludes:
As for Kilman? He may have already played his last game under Nuno.
Which might be easier said than done: Lopetegui’s “pick” in the summer of ’24 came in on a seven year contract so he can quite justifiably sit on the bench for another five years taking his £5.2 million a year. Nice work if you can get it. Cannot see anyone else offering more than half this amount to a very average player. Could he be the new Danny Ings?
Well, Nuno got it spectacularly wrong against Villa. We we mauled in midfield. Was not the game for Potts to come back into either, needed a strong presence and Kante would’ve been a better fit. But if your set up is for a back 3 then you have to bite the bullet and put Kilman on. Couldn’t have been any worse than what happened.
This is a David Sullivan approved signing and contract agreement! This is why we are fighting relegation because we haven’t had the funds to buy a proper striker like other premier league teams! Due to these type of deals he will have virtually no resale value and is on 5.2m a year for 7 years??? Fulkrug is another no resale and on over a 100k a week! This is club mismanagement at the highest level and when west ham are relegated this season we know who’s responsible!!!
I know it seems popular to bash Kilman and he is not a £40m player but imho he is not as bad as some make out. I would imagine his confidence is shot but there are deeper rooted causes there in the previous managers getting us into this hole and poor recruitment generally by Sullivan.
I hope that he can rebuild his confidence and we can find a way to either reintegrate him or move him on.
he already is
Nuno is entirely to blame for the tactical disaster at Villa . It looked as if Villa had 12 and Westham had 10 players on the pitch , an obvious sign that Westham players were consistently in the wrong places . If the plan to be competitive was 3 CB’s then play your best 3 CB’s , Killman if he is the next best option . What we saw was no midfield and no attack allowing Villa to totally dominate around Westham’s goal . Westham need 3 or 4 wins out of 7 matches to stay up and so further tactical blunders will prove catastrophic .
Nuno got the decision not to go with the train smash that is Kilman absolutely correct.He is single handedly responsible for our defensive woes. However he got the wrong replacement. Maggassa should have come into the same system which is where he played at Monaco. Potts is far from ready for a starting role . ⚒️⚒️
Kilman played 48 times for Nuno at Wolves over two seasons, thirty times in the second season. He has been a regular Nuno choice in the past.
I get why he’s not now as all of Disasi, Todibo and Mavropanos have proven more reliable options.
Who knows why Nuno played Potts, I still don’t know why he played Scarles at right back and AWB left back in the home game v Brentford and again in the away game at Leeds even though it didn’t work the first time.
I think I would have preserved the game plan and the weeks training and played Kilman.
Sometimes Nuno does off the wall things.
I can’t understand why he put him on the bench? I expect every West Ham fan would have feared the worst if they had seen Killman drafted in last minute. Well he couldn’t have done much worse. It looked like Potts was playing as a centre back but not very effectively.
If Nuno is too frightened to play Killman because of the fans reaction, like what happened against Chelsea why put him on the bench at all, give the place to a young attacker. In fairness to Killman that substitution against Chelsea was the move that meant we lost the game but he didn’t actually do anything wrong when he came on and nearly stopped the second goal.
Until our status for next season is determined everything is up in the air – if the worst happens and we are relegated then we are not sure who the manager will be and Killman (like others) will probably have a wage cut in his contract which could be an incentive to look for another club
For now its all eyes on the next 7 games – maybe Killman will actually play in the FA cup?
why was he on the bench then?
surely a young player should be sat there gaining experience and maybe come on as a sub
Have said this so many times.
Don’t need 2 goalkeepers on bench either.
Utilises spaces with pacy academy players and Orford.
3 goal attempts in 2 games what does that tell you.
Hardly a new Danny Ings comparison. However definitely Kieron Dyer or Jack Wilshere.
As you intimate Martin, not the guy’s fault. Julen Lopetegui is the man to blame. He has cost us so much more than currently paying the salaries of two managers who have gainful employment elsewhere.
We must end the blame game, accept reality and move on. A real shame if Maximillian Kilman can no longer figure in our efforts to move on up.
Maybe that Nuno thought it more practical to revert to Plan B set up on Sunday rather than slot in a replacement for Todibo. We have recently been successful without Todibo and Kilman. Just not at short notice and against Villa.
EXACTLY a Danny Ings comparison! A player contracted on massive wages for the next few years that NOBODY will buy from you. Dyer & Wilshire were injury prone,or had injuries and were hardly available regardless of how good or bad they were.