West Ham are considering a move for Nuno Espirito Santo should they sack manager Graham Potter. (Alan Nixon), external
Arsenal, Barcelona and Napoli are interested in Palmeiras' 19-year-old Brazilian centre-back Luiz Gustavo Benedetti. (Mundo Deportivo - in Spanish), external
Manchester United are interested in Nottingham Forest's £70m-rated midfielder Elliot Anderson, but the England international, 22, is happy at the City Ground and has no plans to leave. (Football Insider), external
Chelsea had a £70m bid for Juventus striker Kenan Yildiz rejected over the summer, with the Italian side hoping to tie the 20-year-old Turkey international down to a long-term contract. (Calciomercato - in Italian), external
Crystal Palace may consider offers in the region of £60m for Adam Wharton in January, with Liverpool keen on the 21-year-old England midfielder. (Teamtalk), external
Manchester United will rival Manchester City in the race to sign Inter Milan's 29-year-old Netherlands full-back Denzel Dumfries. (Football Insider), external
Real Madrid are monitoring the progress of Leicester's 16-year-old England Under-19 winger Jeremy Monga. (Fichajes - in Spanish)
The Athletic
West Ham’s new-look back line simply can’t defend corners. Potter has to act – now
By Roshane Thomas
During West Ham United’s 3-0 defeat against rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, a fire was brought under control in the car park of the nearby Westfield shopping centre by the London Fire Brigade.
But perhaps those emergency workers should have continued to the London Stadium to extinguish some of the fires West Ham’s defence were setting for themselves when trying to deal with set pieces.
It was a third Premier League defeat of the season for Graham Potter’s side, who have conceded 11 goals in four games, leading to another mass exodus from supporters before full time.
The loss has only added to the club’s woes, given the off-field turmoil. A protest is planned to take place before this weekend’s game against Crystal Palace and anger towards the defence may feature in the fans’ long list of issues they are upset about.
Of West Ham’s many weaknesses, defending corners is the one that opposition teams exploit time after time. They have conceded six goals from corners in the league this season, twice as many as any other side. It is only two fewer than they conceded in the whole of last season (eight).
“We defended nine or 10 set pieces really well before their goal,” Potter said in his post-match press conference. “I can understand once you’ve conceded a goal from a set piece, you’ll ask the question (of why West Ham keep struggling). But I actually thought we defended them well. It was a mistake we made at the back post and it just shows the margins at this level.
“I felt for the supporters and the players because you don’t know whether to push on and open yourself up, when it could get even uglier. That’s just the reality when you’re down by two or three goals with 10 men. I understand the frustrations and it’s uncomfortable.”
After four league games last season, West Ham had faced 20 corners and conceded just once from them, but the £20million ($27m) arrival of goalkeeper Mads Hermansen from Leicester City, coupled with a new-look back line of Kyle Walker-Peters, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Maximilian Kilman and Malick Diouf, has seen Potter’s side become more vulnerable at set pieces.
Tottenham defender Cristian Romero had a goal ruled out for a foul after being judged to have pushed Walker-Peters in the build-up. It was a similar tactic other clubs have deployed in recent weeks: put a player in front of Hermansen to disrupt him. The goal was disallowed, but it was a sign of things to come.
Tottenham’s opener, courtesy of Pape Matar Sarr, came via a set piece shortly after half-time. The screengrab below shows Walker-Peters marking Romero, Diouf on Lucas Bergvall and Tomas Soucek, who was later sent off, tasked with tracking Joao Palhinha’s run. But Mathys Tel and Sarr are unmarked.
Simons whipped in the cross and Sarr converted at the back post.
Sarr had also headed over the crossbar from a set piece before the interval. The midfielder featured heavily in Tottenham’s attack. After the match, Palhinha discussed why Spurs targeted West Ham on corners.
“It was one of the areas we tried to explore because we knew we were stronger in that moment of the game,” Tottenham’s summer signing told The Athletic.
“We started to put more focus on set pieces and we did well. Congratulations to the coach (Thomas Frank) and staff because sometimes people only speak about the players, but the staff played an important role in this. They choose the position for the players (to take up inside the box), so we need to share this moment with them. We’ve been working well on this and we need to keep doing it.”
Potter and his backroom staff are yet to find solutions. In the chastening 5-1 loss against Chelsea, Enzo Maresca’s side realised peppering Hermansen with crosses was a worthwhile exercise. Before Joao Pedro’s goal, fellow forward Liam Delap blocked Hermansen’s attempts to punch the ball away, once more highlighting his vulnerability on corners.
There was a breakdown in communication between Hermansen and Kilman for Chelsea’s fourth goal, via Moises Caicedo from a corner. The next meaningful set piece saw Hermansen bullied by Delap, leading to Trevor Chalobah’s goal.
But despite the glaring issues facing West Ham, Potter saw signs of encouragement for upcoming games against Palace and Everton. “The first half was even because we had good attacks and good moments,” he said afterwards in his press conference. “There were positives, with Crysencio Summerville returning, Mateus Fernandes’ second game and Malick Diouf contributed down the left really well. Kyle Walker-Peters and Jarrod Bowen had a good contribution down the right. From a defensive perspective, we were solid.
“There was more pressure from set pieces and balls in the box, which we dealt with well. Then (in) the second half, we make a mistake for their first goal, then there is the red card and the scoreline goes away from us. It makes for an uncomfortable second half, completely unlike the first half, which is really disappointing.”
West Ham are in trouble and only they can prevent further sirens at the London Stadium.
Sport Witness
On August 23rd, West Ham United’s Edson Álvarez completed a loan move to Fenerbahçe and over a week later, he joined the Mexico squad for September’s international break.
The midfielder started in Mexico’s goalless draw against Japan but was forced off the pitch after half an hour due to an injury and was replaced by Cruz Azul’s Érik Lira.
This forced the West Ham man to miss El Tri’s friendly against South Korea last week due to the setback. Last Wednesday, the Mexico football association confirmed he had suffered a “serious muscle injury” and the extent of the damage will be determined after he returns to Fenerbahçe.
The 27-year-old sat down for a chat with Miroslava Montemayor and Fox Sports in Mexico have relayed his comments.
Montemayor asked the West Ham owner player about his injury blow, and Álvarez said he is waiting for the test results to find out how long he’ll be away from the pitch.
“These have been very tough weeks of learning. Now I’m dealing with what happened to me on Saturday [against Japan on September 6th], but, well, it’s all part of it. We’re waiting for results and hopefully it’s as mild as possible,” he said.
At the weekend, the Mexico international was forced to miss the Istanbul club’s 1-0 win over Trabzonspor. Fenerbahçe face Alanyaspor on Wednesday and Álvarez is unlikely to be available for this clash.