Did Mads Hermansen make the save which eventually keeps West Ham United up? Furthermore, could the in-form goalkeeper end up playing an interesting role in Tottenham Hotspur’s riches-to-rags tale?
Just 24 hours after Hermansen denied Josh King a Fulham equaliser with an astonishing reflex stop at Craven Cottage – a nervy 1-0 win on the road means the Hammers are now level on points with Nottingham Forest – Guglielmo Vicario had that familiar look on his face.
Yet, as bemused and befuddled as the Italian may have appeared, Vicario did not cover himself in glory in what felt like an end-of-days defeat by Crystal Palace.
How do you feel about Mads Hermansen NOW? 🇩🇰 🧤
Has he won you over? Or are there still doubts?
Sent the wrong way by Ismaila Sarr, nutmegged by Jorgen Strand Larsen, and then in no-man’s land for the Eagles’ third.
The jokes almost write themselves. Under Igor Tudor, Tottenham may just ‘beheading’ down.
When reports emerged claiming that West Ham and Tottenham were in talks regarding a goalkeeper swap – Antonin Kinsky and Mads Hermansen exchanging benches – the expectation was that Kinsky would become Nuno’s new number one while Hermansen played back-up to Vicario across the city.
Right now, though, you would be hard pushed finding a single West Ham fan who would swap their comeback kid for Spurs’ spaghetti-wristed Italian.
West Ham United’s Mads Hermansen is outperforming Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario
The simple fact is this; as maligned as the Dane might have been throughout much of his Hammers career, Hermansen is comfortably the better goalkeeper of the two right now.
That Kinsky / Hermansen swap deal was supposed to be to see West Ham land an upgrade between the sticks. The stats suggest that it might have been Tottenham – in freefall with only two points from a possible 27 – who secured themselves an improvement between the sticks.
Hermansen has four clean sheets in seven games. As many as Alphonse Areola has in 38. Vicario, meanwhile, has four clean sheets in his last 20 Premier League outings.
Hermansen is still underperforming his ‘expected saves’ tally – owing much to that dreadful start under Graham Potter – but Vicario’s XG is even worse. Tottenham’s number one has let in 4.5 more goals than he should have done, considering the quality of the chances available to the opposition [FotMob].
And while the Premier League ended up deleting a video mocking Vicario’s wild passing in the 2-1 loss at Fulham – long ball after long ball ballooned into the Craven Cottage stands – Hermansen now ranks behind only Alisson and Gianluigi Donnarumma. Statistically the third-most accurate distributor of all the Premier League goalkeepers since his return to the XI a month ago.
Hermansen deserves to keep his place ahead of Alphonse Areola
On the back of what was comfortably his most impressive performance since that £20 million move from Leicester City, Hermansen has emphatically repaid the faith shown in him by Nuno. Justifying his inclusion ahead of Alphonse Areola.
Had he made the short trip across London to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, on current form, there is every chance Vicario may have suffered the same fate as West Ham’s bench-warming Frenchman.
Hammers News readers voted Hermansen their Man of the Match in midweek. He claimed 51 per cent of the vote, ahead of matchwinner Crysencio Summerville on 34 per cent.
“We are improving game by game. Results like the Liverpool match [a 5-2 defeat last weekend] can happen, but the players are working very hard. We just have to focus on ourselves and keep going,” Nuno said at the Cottage.
“Clean sheets are [important] for all of us. I think Mads played a good game; he helped us, and a clean sheet is always our goal.”
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