Freiburg’s Europa League opponents West Ham United are one of the surprises in the English Premier League. A German squad planner also played his part in this.
As Declan Rice in the summer of West Ham United to FC arsenal changed, the fans became aware of it “Hammers” fear and anxiety. After all, the England international was the club’s figurehead for years; the defensive midfielder played for the workers’ club from London even as a teenager.
Last year in a relegation battle
Things didn’t go well with Rice last season. Coach David Moyes’ team ended the season in 14th place and was currently in a serious relegation battle. Just the fact that the club is in Europe Conference League won, Moyes probably saved the job. Because of their success on the international stage, West Ham is playing in the Europa League this season and will face SC Freiburg on the second matchday on Thursday (from 6:45 p.m. in the live ticker at sportschau.de).
The mood of West Ham fans didn’t get any better over the summer. Because although the club had pocketed a whopping 116.6 million euros for Rice, they stood “Iron’s” a week before the start of the season as the only one Premier League-Club still without even a new player.
Steidten worked in Leverkusen and Bremen
A new technical director was hired on July 1st. The German Tim Steidten was previously the sports coordinator and head of the Scouting-Department of Bayer Leverkusen. The Bremen native had already worked for SV Werder.
The 44-year-old is said to have a good knack for talent. That’s why he has the nickname “Pearl Diver”. In Leverkusen, among other things, he handled the transfers of players like Edmond Tapsoba and Jeremie Frimpong.
Squad planner Tim Steidten (l.) with Leverkusen’s Simon Rolfes
Different philosophies
At West Ham, Steidten is responsible for the club’s overarching player signing strategy and scouting department and will work closely with coach Moyes.
And that probably didn’t work out particularly well at first. While Steidten relies on possession football a la Bayer Leverkusen, Moyes prefers counterattack football. This apparently caused differences of opinion regarding the profile of potential additions.
Skillful Transfer policy
But then both of them got together and the transfers happened very quickly. With success. After seven matchdays, West Ham United are in seventh place in the Premier League with 13 points. Especially the 3-1 win against FC Chelsea and the 3:1 Brighton & Hove Albion came as a surprise.
One reason for the current success is also a clever transfer policy. West Ham found what they were looking for, especially at Ajax Amsterdam. Edson Alvarez, who FC Bayern Munich also wanted to sign, came into the defensive midfield, Mohammed Kudus plays offensively. And James Ward-Prowse also proves to be a hit, and not just because of his fearsome standards. Rice’s replacement came from FC Southampton.
For defense, the club sent central defender Konstantinos Mavropanos from VfB Stuttgart to London. In the end they had “Hammers” even have a transfer surplus of 18.84 million euros.
And they were lucky that Lucas Paqueta’s planned move to Manchester City fell through due to alleged violations of sports betting regulations. The Brazilian is currently playing perhaps his best season at West Ham.
Bowen is the top scorer
It’s no surprise that Freiburg’s Matthias Ginter is one of them with a view to the Europa League duel with the Londoners “chunk” speaks. In fact, it is the top game in Group A. While the sports club won 3-2 at Olympiakos Piraeus at the start, West Ham left nothing to be desired at home against TSC Backa Topola from Serbia, winning 3-1. The Breisgauers should pay particular attention to Jarrod Bowen. He has already scored five times in seven league games and is currently behind Manchester City Erling Haaland and Tottenham Heung-min Son third best scorer in the league.