Gary Lineker has leapt to the defence of new West Ham signing Mads Hermansen after he was written off after just one game but some critics he says will end up being proved very wrong.
It was a debut to forget for West Ham’s new number one goalkeeper Mads Hermansen.
The Hammers paid a club record fee of nearly £18m to sign Hermansen from Leicester City after protracted talks.
West Ham walked away from a deal earlier in the summer when the Foxes demanded over £30m for the Dane.
The Hammers used interest in Botafogo stopper John Victor to force cash-strapped Leicester’s hand, though.
Hermansen’s Hammers debut horror
Hermansen was given glowing references from Leicester fans who felt not only was he worth more than the £30m the club initially demanded, but that he was worthy of a move to a Champions League club.
The 25-year-old had only trained for a few days with his new teammates ahead of West Ham’s season opener at Sunderland.
Almost everyone in Hammers circles expected Graham Potter to stick with Alphonse Areola while Hermansen got settled in his new surroundings.
Especially as the former Brondby star had not played for some time having had an operation towards the end of last season.
Areola has been poor since taking over from Lukasz Fabianski as the Hammers’ number one.
But the Frenchman was on something of a high after being West Ham’s penalty shootout winner in the final pre-season game against Lille last weekend.
However, Potter raised eyebrows by starting Hermansen.
It looked an inspired call when Hermansen pulled off a brilliant point-blank save to ensure West Ham went in at half-time level.
Lineker leaps to Hermansen’s defence after debut disaster
His kicking with both feet and composure on the ball was also excellent.
But everything fell apart for the debutant and West Ham in the second half.
Hermansen has been heavily criticised by fans, pundits and journalists for his performance and could have done much better for all three goals.
Now one pundit who knows more about the Hammers new boy than most has had his say.
Gary Lineker has leapt to the defence of new West Ham star Hermansen after his debut disaster.
For Sunderland’s first and second goals, Hermansen seemed to be stuck in the mud, failing to get across his goal to headed efforts which seemed saveable.
The third was a really poor error as he tried to paw away Wilson Isidor’s strike with one hand, completely missing the ball for what should have been a comfortable save at Premier League level.
The new stopper’s height has been questioned, standing at 3cm shorter than Fabianski and a full 10cm smaller than Areola.
Lineker is a lifelong Leicester fan and has watched Hermansen’s development at the King Power.
He admits Hermansen’s performance was uncharacteristically poor.
But he is backing West Ham’s £18m man to prove the critics wrong very quickly.
Lineker: Hermansen will prove critics wrong at West Ham
“Yes, Hermanson was a Leicester goalkeeper of the previous season,” Lineker said on The Rest Is Football, which you can watch below.
“They obviously spent quite a few quid on him.
“I mean, I really like him. He’s been a brilliant shot stopper, but it was an awful debut.
“You thought he could have got the first one, maybe not. But the third one went straight. He tried to push it out and missed it.
“Yes, he had a bad day. I’ve seen a lot of him and I’m confident for West Ham fans that you’ll see much better from him going forward. I think he’s a top ‘keeper.”
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