Ian Wright blasts Thilo Kehrer for what he did in West Ham United defeat v Everton
Ian Wright has blasted West Ham defender Thilo Kehrer for his role in Everton’s winning goal against the club on Sunday afternoon.
The Hammers were left sitting in the relegation zone heading into the international break as Neal Maupay scored his first goal for the Toffees to claim all three points in a 1-0 win.
But speaking on Match of the Day 2 [18 September, 11:35pm], Wright was quick to point out that Kehrer was slow to engage and that hesitation allowed Maupay’s strike that led to the goal and said David Moyes would not be happy with him.
“I think he’s somebody that given the opportunities he may get them the goals,” he said.
“I thought his link up play was pretty good, certainly in instances today. Iwobi done what he does, he’s a fire-cracker for them. Great ball into him and I think that’s not a great touch but if you’re going to stand off somebody whose got the ball to pop up here.
“Look at Kehrer here. Once this ball comes in, because he’s fizzed it into him, at some stage he’s got to go and engage that. When you look from this angle, he’s got to be coming in. He stops. Look at the goal.
“It’s a great finish because you’ve got to hit the target but you’re not meant to get that much time. You’ve got to give him credit for it because he has taken advantage of it but David Moyes seeing that, he can’t be happy with his defender stopping, putting his arms behind himself then not going and challenging.”
Poor
It was a poor performance from West Ham overall over the 90 minutes, but the central defenders on the pitch were arguably the best performers for the Hammers.
But despite a good performance, Kehrer’s moment of hesitation has ended up costing West Ham points in the Premier League race and they find themselves in a big hole right now.
That moment needed leadership and bravery and while he hasn’t done much wrong since arriving at the club he needed to do more there to really step up to the mark.
Once the team return from the international break Moyes will have needed to get through to his squad that they must give everything on the pitch to get results, otherwise it will be a long season that includes plenty more moments like that.
It may seem harsh to call him out on that tiny error, but ultimately it was the difference between a loss and points and now West Ham are worse off for it.