**West Ham’s most in-form central defender Jean-Clair Todibo will miss the next three matches due to suspension after seeing red vs Chelsea, so it’s crucial West Ham get the right central defender in today on Transfer Deadline Day.**
Despite many Hammers fans’ protests, Axel Disasi is signing on loan from Chelsea for the remainder of the season. The Frenchman is currently undergoing his medical ahead of a switch from West to East London.
Before around 7pm on Saturday, I think this would have been a good move. Mavropanos and Todibo seem to be putting together an excellent partnership, winning two matches in a row playing as a pair.
We were beating Chelsea 2-0 and coasting at the back, however, by around that had all changed, We had conceded three second half goals, all pretty avoidable and Todibo, our best centre-back right now saw red for throttling Chelsea attacker Joao Pedro.
He will not be missing three matches, meaning, unless Nuno wants to start the calamitous Kilman, the new signing will have to come straight in for the next three matches to pair Mavropanos at the very least, so we have to make sure we sign the right man.
With it being deadline day, we really don’t have much choice, so we seem to have accelerated with the Axel Disasi deal after seeing offers refused by Southampton for Taylor Harwood-Bellis.
As a player, I think I do prefer Disasi, he fits the profile of player we need a whole lot more than THB. He is physically dominant, especially aerially in both defence and attack. Harwood-Bellis isn’t really that, i’m not sure he’s the type of defender we need.
I’m not sure about Disasi either, he hasn’t been great since arriving for big money from Monaco in 2023. He is slow and quite clumsy on the ball, however, if Nuno keeps opting for switching to a low-block when we’re leading he could be good for that, just maybe not when we’re trying to play quite expansively.
If Disasi is fit enough he could be a decent option for the Hammers going into the business end of the season, to be an improvement, all he has to be is better than Max Kilman, and I don’t think that’s very hard. If we’re being realistic, a central defender isn’t going to save us from relegation no matter how good he is, he just has to be solid and better than Kilman and we might be okay.
We need a solid central defender in to give us a platform to be able to attack teams, like we did against Sunderland and in the first-half against Chelsea and keep picking up points to keep us in the Premier League. Let’s hope Disasi can be that man.