Two West Ham stars have been condemned to bench oblivion after their ‘FA Cup disasters’ at the weekend. One these names will not surprise you but one will disappoint, I’m guessing. There were, admittedly, several poor performances on Sunday as Leeds United triumphed despite West Ham’s late rally.
Changes were made to Nuno’s FA Cup starting eleven at half time to try and address the manner in which Leeds were overrunning the Irons, and it seems largely on the results of this one game, planetfootball.com have seen fit to add two West Ham players to their list of:
‘5 Premier League players who won’t feature again in 2025-26 after FA Cup disasters’
As well as identifying Arsenal’s Kepa and Lewis Skelly as being surplus to requirements at The Emirates, the report is equally scathing on two West Ham quarter final starters who, it claims, will not appear further before the season is decided:
Max Kilman
“..became arguably the worst signing in West Ham history, a £40million millstone with five years left on an unfathomable contract.
The centre-half was booed by his own fans during the FA Cup defeat to Leeds in which he conceded a penalty, Nuno Espirito Santo having given Kilman his first appearance since the fourth-round win over Burton Albion in mid-February.”
Out of contention – finally – if this report is accurate. Max Kilman’s Hammers career looking over
Kilman has played 25 minutes in the Premier League since his last start for the Hammers – a 3-0 defeat to Wolves in early January. If he is called on again at any stage this season, there might well be another mass walk-out at the London Stadium.”
Cannot argue with that one, but booing your own players? Not on in my book. The second name may be more of a surprise:
Freddie Potts
“The relative bright spots earlier in the campaign have long since faded, giving way to half-time substitutions on two of his last three Premier League starts, a straight red card against League One Burton and a risible showing against Leeds.
Oops – Potts gets his FA Cup marching orders
The list of individuals who must shoulder responsibility for this West Ham mess before Potts is absurdly long, but equally this is not really the place for a 22-year-old who would not be in the picture were it not for his academy background.”
Potts has certainly suffered this season after a promising start to his West Ham career. His progress seems to have stalled and now youngster Mohammed Kanté seems likely to sit ahead of him in the Hammers pecking order. It is a mystery, after such early promise. Seems a little early to be writing him off though.
Potts certainly has potential .
The problem is playing him and Fernandez together .
Both like to take possession deep and while Fernandez can pinpoint a pass Freddie is more a give and go traditional holding player . In a midfield central 2 Freddie doesn’t have enough going forward yet , but is definitely a good player .
Kilman is very low on confidence and not as bad a player as conveyed . He’s had a very poor season and probably needs a fresh start somewhere new . I always maintain you don’t become a bad player overnight but confidence is everything.
I still maintain Aerola has made more mistakes than Kilman this season and with not one clean sheet the stats do the talking !
Young players are notoriously inconsistent, but both Potts and Magassa have shown that there is talent there to be developed. Keep the faith
I thought Potts was great when he came into the side, such composure for such a young lad he made everything seem easy and always put a challenge in usually a fair one. But since the wolves away game him and Magassa have been awful and they were both terrible against a poor Leeds side on Sunday.
It wouldn’t worry me if he didn’t play again and Kante Souchek and Fernandez take the main spots in MF
That’s very true, at the start he made it all look easy. Maybe wanting so much to make it good at WHU (like his Dad), a very long relegation battle is a lot to handle and any little mistake feels 20 times worse.
We all agree that Max Killman is an extremely bad signing. Before he even kicked a ball at WH, we were told that Dawson covered for him at Wolves, and that he was not the leading CB. His demeanor also tells one that. His latest penalty give away, together with all his other mistakes at WH demands his immediate absence.
The comments about Potts are also correct. He has faded badly. And to blame is his own bad attitude. The first seconds of him coming on to the pitch + being sent off in the FA cup match bears testament to his bad attitude. A good few of the WH youngsters carry this attitude too.
Then Nuno also must carry the can for fielding 3x youngsters in the midfield against Leeds. That clearly speaks about bad decision making, arrogance of just blatantly. Never can any senior team take the pitch which such inexperience + off-form players in the midfield. Never.
So again, much work to do. Come on West Ham.
Much too soon to be writing off Freddie Potts. He might find his way off to Charlton, Portsmouth or Burnley in time but right now he needs to knuckle down and show what he can do given the opportunities.
As for Maxi Kilman, we need to move him on as soon as possible in the summer and hope to get some sort of money for him. Lopetegui’s legacy hangs around our neck weighing us down and adding to the struggle for our future.
Potts has not been playing well at all and for a time now. It has got worse in subsequent games. A real shame of course {now WHU midfield seems not so great all of a sudden}.
I’m guessing he tried to keep his game simple, taking no chances, but if so, his game is give and go only and it is not enough and a bit of a strait jacket. When he has attempted something different (bursting forward, cross-field pass) he has not quite pulled it off and that will not have helped him gain in confidence. You do not see him beating people in midfield and that would concern me most, no dummies, no sprinting past players, certainly no dribbling. This might be one aspect he needs to actually add to his game.
Some people did warn that relegation battles can be a difficult environment for youngsters to thrive in, because every game is so crucial every mistake examined.
I guess he has perhaps lost confidence in himself & his ability, plus he has to compare himself to Fernandes – that cannot be easy!
I think a big factor is having the confidence to show what he can do and he needs to be helped in doing this as well as adding to his game. Apparently on his previous loan, he made assists, created goal chances, so he was definitely performing better & played a more expansive game than we have seen – which is promising.
Ridiculous fees for average / ageing players has cost us dearly since the Pellegrini era, some of the lengths of contract are absurd and shows what a complete shambles this club is at the top level. Incompetence doesn’t do it justice !!
With regard Freddie, think very difficult circumstances at the moment and yes he has dipped quite a bit, but agreed Martin, keep the faith and give him a chance going forward.