Rangers may have been held at bay but West Ham looked far from the finished article yesterday with little prowess in the centre of the pitch or going forward. Without last season’s two top performers that should come as no surprise to anyone, least of all the management.
However perhaps looking at the game through a different lens, there was a slightly more positive slant which could be placed on the Irons’ performance – especially that of last season’s defensive discard Max Kilman.
Kilman endured a terrible season after starting badly and was replaced by loanee Axel Disasi
Unofficially suggested as the man of the match (according to a straw poll of hammers chat viewers after their watch-along), Kilman looks to have progressed quietly in pre season this summer after his confidence took a massive nose dive after a string of shaky Premeir League starts.
Nuno famously – and wisely – turned to loanee Axel Disasi instead, leaving the Hammers £40 million man on the bench for virtually all of the second half of the season.
With Disasi long gone, The lack of an alternative might just give Kilman a run in the team in the first few games within the Championship: Less a form rediscovery, more likely the defender has simply found his level in the second tier.
Perhaps he can confound his Claret and Blue critics – me included – if he can follow up the quiet, calm and unassuming role he’s adopted in pre-season and keep out the best that the championship has to offer.
Much like goal keeper Mads Hermansen, the player looks more comfortable at this level than in the top tier, and could yet prove a useful member of Nuno’s squad this year. With teenage centre back Airidas Golambeckis sitting ready and waiting on the bench, the Hammers do still need a ‘fourth man’, but one who might yet get to sit out the season if Kilman can keep up the levels he’s shown in pre-season.
I don’t want to just knock the guy for the sake of it, because like him or not we are gonna need him to be back to his best. But He didn’t do much wrong but didn’t do much right or have much to do IMO. But I thought his distribution was really poor when he tried to make a pass and 99% of the time stuck to 3 foot sideways or backward passes. Lastly I didn’t see him win a header. Dinos distribution wasn’t great either but did complete a few decent cross field balls.and definitely won some headers. Maybe he did more than what I noticed. I know we are looking for positives to take from an awful match I just didn’t feel it was one.
Really ….. are you having a laugh?
While this would be good Rangers are not a Championship team and this was a friendly. What you say may be true but let’s judge when the season starts.
Dont rely on Kilman Our club is so negative thinking and cheap