Graham Potter, Casper Ankergren and Linus Kandolin are wasting no time getting their teeth into West Ham United’s new £18 million goalkeeper Mads Hermansen.
Ahead of what could be a Premier League debut in a Hammers shirt away to Sunderland on Saturday afternoon, the club’s new number one – both literally, given the number on his shirt, and probably reflected on Graham Potter’s team sheet too – is already hard at work behind the scenes at Rush Green.
Even football’s Mr Miserable Roy Keane had kind words to say about Hermansen this week. If that isn’t a good omen, then what is?
Hammers News can confirm that West Ham prioritised the former Leicester City ace over a variety of other options – Mads Hermansen joined last weekend while John Victor found himself staying put at Botafogo – largely because of the Dane’s impressive qualities with the ball at his feet.
It should come as little surprise, then, that Potter, Ankergren and Kandolin could be spotted working on Hermansen’s build-up play as he looks to form a relationship with his new claret-and-blue teammates.
Casper Ankergren and Graham Potter hard at work with West Ham United newbie Mads Hermansen
The club’s newly-appointed lead first-team goalkeeping coach Casper Ankergren is a huge fan of Mads Hermansen.
They worked together at Brondby a couple of years ago. Hammers News can also confirm that it was Ankergren who pushed for West Ham to bring the 24-year-old to the London Stadium.
Alongside his new assistant – Graham Potter feels Ankergren and Linus Kandolin are ‘excellent’ additions to his staff – the one-time Brighton and Leeds United glovesman spent much of Hermansen’s first training session focusing on passing drills.
“We will always have one here, one here,” Ankergren was heard saying, instructing the widest of the defenders to stretch the pitch in order to give Hermansen as many options in possession as possible.
“Two centre-backs on the outside, and I will play as a ‘six’. I will always start with the ball, play it into the keeper.
“You can also go fast; A bounce back [pass] and first time into Wes [Foderingham, West Ham’s third-choice keeper].”
The basic principle of such a drill is to ensure that, when Hermansen has possession, the deepest of the midfielders drops in, the centre-halves split, and the full-backs push up. Thus, the goalkeeper is not forced to simply boot the ball aimlessly downfield and risk handing it straight back to the opposition.
Graham Potter, a coach whose success at Brighton was built upon possession-heavy foundations, also got involved.
“The angle of Mads is now dependent on where [the opposition player is] is,” Potter barked, instructing his West Ham players to make themselves available in order to negate a high press.
“All of a sudden, depending on what [the presser] does, there is the out-ball.”
Former Leicester City goalkeeper tells West Ham fans what to expect from him
As the man himself is keen to point out, however, there is more to Mads Hermansen than eye-catching distribution.
He pulled off the seventh-most saves of any Premier League goalkeeper in 2024/25. He would surely be a lot higher up the list, too, if he had featured in more than 27 out of 38 matches.
The highlight of his campaign came back in December, when Mads Hermansen denied West Ham on ten occasions during what Foxes boss Ruud van Nistelrooy described as an ‘unbelievable’ performance.
“First of all, I love to keep the ball out of the net,” Hermansen told the club’s official website during his unveiling.
“But apart from that, I like to participate in the build-up play. And I think I’m quite good at creating relationships between me and the defenders, so we always have good communication and feel trust in each other.
“So, I would love to come in and give that to the team as well.”
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