West Ham United manager Nuno Espirito Santo has promised Mads Hermansen he will be given his chance once again.
Tipsbladet have an interview with Espirito Santo today in which he discusses Hermansen’s current situation.
Hermansen joined West Ham in the summer in a €20.8m deal from Leicester. The expectation had been that he would be their new number one moving forwards.
The 25-year-old started the season in that role under Graham Potter but was dropped after four games. He’d conceded 11 goals in those games and kept just one clean sheet.
Alphonse Areola was brought back into the team for the losses to Crystal Palace and Arsenal and the draw with Everton. He also sat on the bench for the 3-2 loss to Wolves in the EFL Cup.
It’s a frustrating situation for the goalkeeper, who had joined West Ham in the hope of kicking on after a difficult time at Leicester. Espirito Santo has now insisted he’ll be given the chance to impress at some point.
Nuno working to improve all West Ham players
“It’s new. It starts now. When we arrived here, the change in the goalkeeper position had already been made,” he said.
“But we have seen a good and top professional goalkeeper who works, like many of his teammates. So, the relationship is developing, and it will become normal as time goes by.
“As I mentioned to you, it was a decision that was made before our arrival, this change in the goalkeeper position. And we felt when we came to the club and had limited time that we should continue with Alphonse.
“But all players will get their chances. It is a new start for all of them. What we expect from Mads is that he works hard, and then he must have respect and patience in relation to us having to make a decision.”
And it seems the new West Ham coach is absolving the goalkeeper of any blame when it comes to the number of goals he’s conceded already.
“No, it’s not him who conceded them, it’s the team,” he added.
“We have to improve the team. We have to improve the players individually, all of them. It’s not about individual players, or about who concedes or scores a goal.
“We score and concede goals together. Now we’re working on our idea for the team. I hope that the next time we talk together, we won’t be talking about the same numbers in terms of conceding goals. That would be really nice.”
