Thilo Kehrer makes promise to West Ham fans after poor start since summer signing

Simon Collings @sr_collings15 September 2022

Thilo Kehrer is convinced he will start thriving for West Ham once fully adapted to English football.

Kehrer joined West Ham in the summer from Paris Saint-Germain for an initial fee of £10million, but has struggled in his first few games.

The centre-back gave away a penalty on his debut against Brighton and then scored an own-goal during a draw with rivals Tottenham.

Kehrer, however, is convinced he can turn things around and is hungry to impress as West Ham take on Silkeborg in the Europa Conference League tonight.

“I feel like I’ve had a kick-start to my West Ham career, directly into it by playing the games straight away,” Kehrer said. “In my opinion it’s also the best way to get to know the team, to integrate inside the club and get to know each other.

“I didn’t have so many games in pre-season so I didn’t have a rhythm, so having my debut and playing right away felt really good for me. I also needed a little bit of time for my body to adapt and get really fit. I feel like I’m getting there.”

Kehrer could tonight form part of a strong West Ham team, with David Moyes keen to use European football to build up momentum after the Hammers made a slow start in the Premier League.

West Ham have won just one league game and sit 18th in the table, but they have a 100 per cent record in the Europa Conference League.

Kehrer scored an own goal against Tottenham
REUTERS

“It gives you a big chance to make a lot of changes as well and I think certainly these games at the moment, we’d like to give players who we want opportunities to play,” said Moyes.

“But we’re also in the process of trying to find a bit of our own form and get into the rhythm and try and be playing in a good fashion.”

The only concern for Moyes will be the plastic pitch being used for tonight’s game. Artificial surfaces have historically aggravated injuries for some players, in both football and rugby, and it is why Moyes will think carefully about bringing Aaron Cresswell and Craig Dawson straight back into the team.

“We’ll have a look at them and obviously we have to check out what is best for them regarding the surface, etc, but we’ve brought them with us and they’re both getting nearer to fitness,” said Moyes.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in