**Former West Ham midfielder Gary O’Neil has proven West Ham fans right as he spoke about Max Kilman’s weaknesses ahead of West Ham’s loss against Brentford on Monday.**
Since Maximilian Kilman arrived at West Ham from Wolverhampton Wanderers for an eye-watering £40m last summer, he’s been an ever present in the starting lineup.
However, that is much to every West Ham fans detriment. The 28-year-old hasn’t been good enough, in fact West Ham as a whole haven’t been good enough since he arrived, and he and his defensive colleagues are a lot to blame for that.
You can could on one hand the amount of times Kilman has impressed in a claret and blue shirt, and the fact he has now played a total of fifty times for the club says all you need to know about him.
He has quality on the ball, he’s a decent passer and he can bring the ball out of the defence with ease. However, that’s where his qualities stop. He’s awful in the air, his one-on-one defending is weak and his positioning and concentration are nothing short of pathetic.
This isn’t a new thing, despite being a good player at Wolves eventually, his former manager Gary O’Neil spoke about his glaring weakness on Sky Sports’ Monday night football ahead of the 2-0 loss to Brentford.
“We did a lot of work with Max, a lot of work. He’s probably not found his best form yet this season. At Wolves, we did a lot of work with him on not switching off. We used to speak to him. because he’s big and he looks for a rest a lot, Max. so he’ll be involved in the game & if he gets a moment to switch the engine off, he’ll take it.”
The fact West Ham United and the scouts identified Max Kilman is their ideal realistic centre back target and then went on to spend £40m on him is crazy. Yes, he’s a talented player, but the fact he was 27-year-old and still lacked concentration as a central defender makes te signing mind-boggling in hindsight.
If he was a youngster that cost £15/20m you’d understand his performances in claret and blue. But the fact we signed him for huge money to be out main central defender and he can’t keep concentration, says it all about our transfer policy in recent times.
Despite pointing out Kilman’s biggest weakness, O’Neil hasn’t given up on his former defender, “I’ve been watching him a bit recently. I’m sure Nuno will drill it back into him, around, don’t rely on your physical attributes, don’t rely on your pace and physicality.
“Make sure your always ready and switched on. West Ham need to improve defensively, Max has definitely got some improvement in him again this year to help West Ham get to where they need to get to.”
The former England futsal star certainly has a lot of improvement to make, he’s becoming the new scapegoat of the fans now Ward-Prowse is out of the picture, and to be honest, it’s hard not to give him stick because he’s played every game since he’s arrived and the team has been poor in a very high percentage of them.