It was Nuno Espirito Santo who decided to keep Mads Hermansen at West Ham United.
Hermansen only joined West Ham last summer but, at one point, the goalkeeper looked set for a quick-fire exit after struggling during his opening few games.
Indeed, Hermansen reportedly wanted to leave West Ham, having fallen behind Alphonse Areola in the pecking order.
How do you feel about Mads Hermansen NOW? 🇩🇰 🧤
Has he won you over? Or are there still doubts?
Nuno, however, brought him back into the fold against Burnley in February, and the Dane has repaid him by keeping two clean sheets in three Premier League games.
Now, some more insight has emerged.
Hermansen wanted to leave West Ham – but Nuno decided to keep him
According to Standard Sport, Nuno had a change of heart.
Hermansen was close to leaving on loan during the January transfer window, but Nuno instead wished to restore him to the first team fold.
The Dane is arguably much more comfortable with the ball at his feet than Areola, who hasn’t kept a clean sheet at all this season.
Presumably, that’s why the 25-year-old was signed in the first place under Graham Potter. It just took months for Nuno to want to go back to that initial plan.
So far at least, Nuno’s change of heart has worked out very well for West Ham.
In fact, at one point reports suggested that West Ham would have let Hermansen leave if they could find a replacement.
However, it now seems that Nuno had a big say in the matter – rather than the club having an inability to replace him.
Things are looking up 😍 So who are we sending down to the Championship?!
Forest? Leeds?……Spurs? 🙏
Mads Hermansen statistics compared to Alphonse Areola
Areola has played many more minutes than Hermansen in the Premier League this season, so that no doubt skews the average.
Still, as per WhoScored data, Hermansen averaged more passes per game (33 to 27.1) than the Frenchman at a higher completion rate (60.2% to 46.6%).
How much of an impact playing out from the back has on West Ham’s success is up for debate. It’s surely not the only reason for their recent success, but it cannot be ignored entirely either.
Nuno values Hermansen’s passing skills and the fact he’s the only West Ham goalkeeper to have kept a clean sheet this season is also worth mentioning.
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