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‘Very Hot And Cold’ ‘Not Good Enough’ Fans Deliver Verdict As Questions Are Raised About West Ham Star’s Form

David Tully Oct 9th 2024

West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola hasn’t been at his imperious best at the start of this season.

The Frenchman was at fault for conceding Liam Delap’s equaliser at the weekend, with the keeper failing to get a strong enough hand to the shot.

It is not the first time this campaign Areola has conceded a goal that he could have potentially kept out. Fans on X believe he is struggling for form at the moment:

What do the stats say about Areola?

The Opta statistics (via FBREF) don’t make for good reading. The 31-year-old has a 60% save ratio, which is the second-worst in the top flight this campaign; only Everton’s Jordan Pickford (55.9%) is worse.

In terms of expected goals, Areola is also struggling, conceding 1.3 more goals than his post-shot xG. Wolves pair Sam Johnstone & Jose Sa (as well as Pickford) are the only keepers who perform worse on that metric after 7 matches played.

West Ham’s defence hasn’t helped the keeper

The Hammers have only kept one clean sheet in the league so far this season; that came against Crystal Palace. They have conceded 3 goals at home to the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea, having also conceded against Aston Villa, Fulham, Brentford and Ipswich.

Areola will hope that now that head coach Julen Lopetegui has settled on Jean-Clair Todibo and Max Kilman as his centre-back partnership, he will get a bit more protection.

Find out who is in West Ham’s first-team squad for the 2024/2025 season here

David Tully

David Tully

David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for the Football News Network.

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