West Ham are not what you’d call a defensive fortress in this day and age. In the 2023-24 season, we conceded 74 goals. This was the most we’d ever conceded in the Premier League, beating our previous record of 70 in the 2010-11 season.
For context, in the 2010-11 season, we were relegated – finishing bottom of the table – with just 33 points. It’s unacceptable for a team aiming for top of the table stability and competing in Europe to be letting in that many goals.
The only three teams who let in more goals than West Ham last year were the relegated ones, messers Luton Town, Burnley and Sheffield United – and a change at the back has been sincerely needed to avoid a repeat poor performance this season. Initial impressions would suggest that new manager Julien Lopetengui agrees as our defense has been thoroughly overhauled during the offseason.
Out went our loyal long-standing Italian defender and sometimes captain, Angelo Ogbonna, as well as our always captain Kurt Zouma. It’s a brave thing to sell a club captain – particularly when it’s not a case of struggling to keep him away from a bigger club.
We’ve also loaned out want-away defender Nayef Aguerd, who penned such a sincere and final goodbye letter to the Hammers that you’d be forgiven for wondering if he knew it was only a loan. With new signings coming in, it seems like it’s an opportunity for a fresh – and dare we say, potentially successful – start.
We’ve seen almost everyone available to us in defence over our first four games, across the league and league cup, and there are some early swings and roundabouts in our collective defensive options – options who have let in five goals over said four games.
We’re familiar with Mavropanos’ game, which means every pass back to the keeper is a ‘heart-in-mouth’ moment. As much as he offers in defensive prowess, he has the potential for a minimum of one fatal error per game within him.
His failure to deliver on and then recover from a driving run forward against Manchester City gifted super-human Erling Haaland with a third goal at the weekend. A new face to add to the centre-back options – and compete with Mavropanos for his place in the starting line up – is French international Jean-Clair Todibo.
He’s something of a big deal at 6’3, having played for Barcelona at the age of 19, and going on to play for Nice, who have kindly loaned him to us for the season. He’s got lots of senior European experience, but hasn’t had a huge amount of time on the pitch yet in east London.
When he has been on the pitch, he’s certainly a towering and strong presence, but he has seemed a little nervous, and may need some time to settle into life in the Premier League. It’s Maximilian Kilman who provides perhaps the brightest spark in our defensive options. Since arriving from Wolves in a £40 million transfer, he’s slotted immediately into our back four, starting every game.
Authoritative, cool, calm and incredibly capable, this is a signing that has unquestionably strengthened us. He’s been completely comfortable driving the heart of our defence, and has even managed an assist in his second league game.
Another signing which has unquestionably strengthened the squad is our new spidery friend. When it comes to skill, flair and punching-the-air excitement, it is Aaron Wan Bissaka’s name that comes to mind.
He has been a delight to watch so far for West Ham, and it’s been a genuine point of wonder that Manchester United, a team who’s defensive record so far is questionable at best, were willing to part with him for just £15 million. Where Aaron’s game could develop is in his skill in the final third, but the shifts we’ve seen so far have been incredibly convincing. He makes it look easy to pull off world class stops and tackles and is genuinely fun to watch.
Another player who’s easy to watch is Emerson Palmieri. The Brazilian is one of the elite few players to have a European cup winners medal for all three levels of competition – Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League – and you can see why he’s so heavily decorated. He’s a skilful player who defends by instinct and, of all our defensive players, offers the most going forward. His attacking game is our best defence, and his pace allows for him to easily overlap on the wing to place crosses and even straight shots into the box – and into the net.
We also have the skill set of Vladimir Coufal still available to us. The hard-working and focused defender isn’t every fan’s cup of tea. His pace isn’t always what it needs to be, and for how far forward he gets, it often leaves us exposed at the back for the counter. He’s played more minutes than fans may have expected so far this season as the new manager takes his time integrating the new players.
Given all the options available to us, do we actually have an ideal back four to keep the goals out in east London? After just four games, the jury is still out – and the reality of having just three experienced senior centre-backs does rear its ugly, goal-conceding head, as demonstrated five times already this season.
There’s three definite names on the team-sheet in West Ham’s back line, and it’s three of the four who started against Manchester City. Kilman is an outstanding signing and is already our most reliable and solid defender.
He’s captain material and doing a job of marshalling the troops at the back. With more time settling into the team, he will grow even more in strength. Emerson takes the left-back position easily – this writer had forgotten that Aaron Cresswell was still part of the squad until just now, so there isn’t really competition there.
Emerson brings an incredible amount of skill to the team and is influential in converting defensive prowess into attacking opportunities. The third automatic name on the sheet is Wan-Bissaka. What a signing he’s been so far; what a signing he’ll be in the future.
Where the future of our back four looks less certain is as to who takes that remaining centre back spot, and we’ve only got two names to choose from. We haven’t seen enough of Todibo yet to see how he’s going to slot into the team and, more importantly, influence the team.
Mavropanos is a good player, but we know he loves a mistake. In this case, it might be better the devil you know, for now. With so much change in the backline, it does help to have someone familiar with how the rest of the team play – and hopefully Mavropanos’s experience with Areola and the rest of the team will start to shore us up at the back.
As our mixed start to the season shows, it can’t come quickly enough. This group of players has a lot of potential – and here’s to conceding fewer goals this season.
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