West Ham United’s 3-1 victory over Newcastle would not become a ‘false dawn’ as feared – they followed that up with another win against Burnley just six days later after all – but those familiar Max Kilman, central defensive failings clearly still remain.
As Zian Flemming headed Scott Parker’s side ahead at the London Stadium, the phrase ‘false dawn’ certainly would have been nagging away at the back of many Hammers minds.
And though they would ultimately turn the scoreline around – while rolling back the years, veteran Callum Wilson and Tomas Soucek ‘won us the game’, Nuno said – the nature of Burnley’s opener showed that West Ham United will never be safe from defensive blunders.
Or, at least, not as long as Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo are lining up together.
Nuno swapped Kilman and Todibo around, to great effect, against Newcastle. The former moved from the left to the right, and the latter from the right to the left. New roles, same old story a week later. A simple cross into the box, and Flemming barely had to jump to head the ball home.
Kilman, statuesque. Todibo, helpless.
“That shake of the head [from Nuno] says it all,” West Ham academy graduate Matt Holland said after Kilman was shrugged aside by the Burnley striker.
“He knows how bad this goal is for West Ham to concede. Once the ball goes in, you’ve got to attack it as a centre-half. Impossible for [Alphonse] Areola to react but, from a defensive perspective, you’ve got to compete better than that when the ball goes into the box.”
One criticism you could not level at Lecce defender and reported West Ham target Tiago Gabriel, though, is an inability to deal with crosses into the penalty area.
According to Italian publication Gazzetta dello Sport, West Ham submitted a £15.8 million bid for Tiago Gabriel recently. Lecce are holding out for £22 million, minimum.
While Hammers News have not yet been able to verify if there is any truth to those claims – Juventus are making a move of their own – it is easy to see why the Portugal Under-21 international may be of interest.
Lecce’s Tiago Gabriel has shades of West Ham United cult hero Craig Dawson
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher summed up Kilman’s problems perfectly after the Nuno reign started with a 1-1 draw at Everton. The £40 million signing from Wolves, Carragher said, is simply ‘too passive’ to be the leader of a Premier League backline.
Even at Molineux, where he blossomed under Nuno, Kilman was more renowned for his ball-carrying than his ability to dominate a crowded six-yard box. He had the old-school, tackle-his-own-grandma Craig Dawson alongside him in Old Gold, making up for his partner’s weaknesses.
Dawson, by the way, was also arguably West Ham’s best penalty-box centre-back of the last few seasons.
His current partner, Todibo, wins only 42 per cent of his defensive duels, per Fbref. Remarkably, that is the second-worst average of any Premier League centre-half in 2025/26, above only Wolves’ Toti Gomes.
Tiago Gabriel, in contrast, wins 67 per cent of his defensive duels. That would put him 12th in the Premier League rankings. According to Data MB, the 20-year-old Sporting Lisbon academy graduate would be a vast improvement on both Kilman and Todibo, both in terms of ‘aerial duels’ and all-round ‘defensive duels’.
He ranks in the 98th percentile across Europe’s major leagues for the former, and 93rd for the latter. Gabriel cannot compete with Kilman or Todibo when it comes to ‘carries’ or ‘progressive passes’ but, then again, that may not be a bad thing.
Portugal Under-21 star may be the partner Max Kilman or Jean-Clair Todibo need
Some of the finest central defensive partnerships in the game are split between one rock-solid centre-half, and a somewhat silkier partner.
See Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique, Ricardo Carvalho and John Terry.
Together, Kilman and Todibo tend to struggle with the physical demands of the English game. Replace one with a 6ft 4ins, duel-winning defensive monster like Tiago Gabriel, and suddenly West Ham might not look quite so vulnerable from balls into the box.
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It is not only Gabriel’s size, though, that makes him a potentially elite-level penalty-box defender. It is also his personality. A fierce, highly-determined operator whose iron-clad mentality shone through even as a teenager.
“He was a true warrior,” Daniel Rosendo, who coached the youngster at Estrela de Amadora in Portugal, told Zero Zero.
“He’s a player with an enormous stride. We taught him to read the game, to anticipate situations, to organise the defence, how to occupy space, to be on top of the player, to lead the line. With these tactical concepts, you can overcome any difficulties he might have in agility and acceleration.”
“[Gabriel] is a player with great potential, who will definitely improve in the coming years. He is a great person,” added Danilo Veiga, another Lecce defender, when speaking to Radio TV Serie A this month.
“He is growing a lot. I am happy for him.”
Gabriel could become a Chris Richards-like figure at West Ham
Fbref pulled up a list of centre-halves who Tiago Gabriel most closely resembles, from a tactical perspective. Interestingly, Crystal Palace’s Chris Richards was high on the list.
The USA international may not possess the ball-playing talents of Marc Guehi or Maxence Lacroix, but his formidable presence, outstanding reading of the game and his brutal defensive headers make Richards one of the best, if also most underrated, ‘pure’ defenders in the Premier League.
Given that West Ham have conceded eight headed goals and nine from set-pieces this season already, signing a centre-back of Tiago Gabriel’s talents may be the best chance Nuno has of fixing that Achilles heel.
A much-needed, long-term replacement for Craig Dawson, perhaps? They both certainly have a lot in common.
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