Thilo Kehrer has reflected on his time at West Ham, the Conference League final as well as potentially making a subtle dig at David Moyes.

When Thilo Kehrer first joined West Ham, it looked like they could have had a bargain on their hands. He had the makings of a top quality defender, but just needed to cut the mistakes out of his game. Unfortunately, for the majority of the season he was unable to do this. In fact, it wasn’t until the final stretch of games that he showed truly how good he could be. 

Unfortunately, it was too little too late and he was sent on loan to Monaco in January with it looking likely that they will make the deal permanent. Thankfully though, he still looks back on his time in East London fondly.

“I had a good time at West Ham,” he told getfootballnewsfrance.com, “even if it was just one-and-a-half years, I really enjoyed the people, the club, the mentality, the supporters, my teammates and everyone with whom I worked. It was a particular atmosphere with lots of professionalism and an appreciation for football and for the competition that is incomparable with other countries. People’s perceptions of players are different than in other countries, it is really something that I like in England.”

“We had difficult periods, but in the Europa Conference League, we won a big title and wrote history for the club, after so many years without a title and so many years that the club was so far away from even thinking about a title. When you see West Ham today, it is no longer the same club, or it is but it is seen in a completely different light. There is pride in having helped create that with my teammates and the staff.”

“Having played in the matches leading up to the final, there was a big disappointment in not starting in the final of the Conference League. The more the game approached, the more I managed to change my emotion from frustration and disappointment into something positive and competitive – to want to win with the team and help the team to do it as soon as they counted on me. It was slightly bizarre, even before the match, I had this feeling and the assistant manager told me that I had to be ready to come off the bench because it was possible that the team would need me. But even before that, I had this feeling that I’d have some playing time in the final. When it happened, there was 25/30 minutes left. The final was decided in that time. It was an important phase of the match and I managed to transform my emotions into something positive and put myself at the service of the team. Even if there was disappointment before the match, the joy by the end was even bigger.”

However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the German, as he confessed that his lack of playing time leading up to his departure was hard to deal with. “It was a difficult period the last six months not having lots of game time. It has to be said that West Ham is a club where there are often changes in terms of the squad and at the start of this season, there were lots of small injury niggles that meant that I couldn’t start the season as I would have wanted.”

“The team was in place and there was a defined starting XI that was putting in good performances and you have to recognise that as a player, that when a manager puts out a team and that for five or six matches, there are good results, which isn’t easy in the Premier League, it isn’t easy to break into the team.”

Kehrer puts his struggles at West Ham down to the style of football not suiting his talents, but some have interpreted this as a dig at David Moyes and his defensive football. Whether that is what he actually meant though is very much up for interpretation.

“You have to be patient and you have to be physically and mentally ready because in football, change can come and I am very happy to have made the change to come here in the winter and discover a style of football that corresponds with my qualities. It’s the project that corresponded most with what I was looking for and corresponded also with what the team here needed,” he stated.

“I’m flexible, honestly. It’s more about the play style. At West Ham, there were lots of phases of play Where you had to know to defend in a low block and it was about tempting teams in and attacking on the counter or with set-pieces or more individual actions in attack. Defending in a low block isn’t necessarily what corresponds with my qualities because I have physical qualities, like speed but also other physical aspects, and also technical abilities with the ball that l had less of a chance to show given the play style.”