This January Callum Goodall and Jack Elderton have gotten together to profile one player a day from a list of players that West Ham could sign throughout the transfer window.
Callum Goodall is a data and recruitment specialist who you may know from his radar charts and megathreads on Twitter where he has produced an excellent scouting series taking a look at players that West Ham could, or should, invest in. We’re lucky to have him for now before he’s snapped up by the club itself.
Jack Elderton is a player performance analyst specialising in roles and tactics who has taken over production of the recently renewed KUMB Podcast. Here you can find Cal and Jack talking in more depth about West Ham’s form, tactics and transfers each week alongside our match reporter Chris “Wilko1304” Wilkerson.
Listen back to the latest episode here.
Reports this January in The Telegraph have linked Lloyd Kelly with a move to West Ham. Bournemouth’s young English defender has been in fine form this season.
It was seen as a shrewd move when then Premier League side Bournemouth picked up Lloyd Kelly for £13.32m in 2019. The young Englishman had performed well when rotating with Jay Dasilva for the left-back spot at Bristol City and Bournemouth would’ve known that they couldn’t possibly keep hold of Nathan Aké for much longer. Investing in a defensive left-back comfortable playing at left centre-half would’ve been a high priority; especially given the age profile of some of their other first team defenders.
Unfortunately for Kelly, he couldn’t make much of an impact in that first season as he suffered repeated muscle injuries and was sidelined for 26 of the 38 games. And despite some impressive results in the run-in against Leicester and Watford, games that unsurprisingly came in the only period of the season in which Kelly was fit and starting in the heart of the defence, Bournemouth fell just one point short of staying in the Premier League.
As expected, relegation triggered a mass exodus of Bournemouth’s best players. Nathan Aké, Callum Wilson, Aaron Ramsdale, Ryan Fraser and Josh King all left for the Premier League and with a rebuild ahead, refreshingly, Bournemouth looked internally.
Since Scott Parker became manager, academy graduates Jaidon Anthony, Jordan Zemura, Mark Travers and Gavin Kilkenny have become established first-teamers alongside other key young players like Dominic Solanke, Lewis Cook and Kelly. Even regular starters Jack Stacey and Philip Billing are still only 25.
Kelly has gone beyond the achievements of most though and has become one of the first names on the team sheet and the de facto captain as Steve Cook’s playing role has diminished. Bournemouth announced yesterday that Cook has now transferred to Nottingham Forest.
The first thing that stands out when looking at Lloyd Kelly is how impressive he is in the air despite only being 5’10”. Kelly is one of the shortest centre-backs to have been linked with West Ham in recent windows but boasts an impressive aerial duel success rate of 68.93%. To put this into perspective, the next most aerially dominant centre-backs to have been linked over the last two windows are Sven Botman and John Brooks, both of whom are more than 5 inches taller than Kelly but win 3% less of their aerial duels.
Kelly’s surprising dominance in the air can be attributed to his exceptional reading of the game. His decision-making when stepping out of the defensive line to meet the ball is very rarely wrong, which allows him to win aerial duels against much taller players than himself simply because he arrives at the ball before they do. This facet of his game should be cause for great excitement amongst West Ham fans who have spent the last few months watching Issa Diop steam out of defence at precisely the wrong moment at least once in every game.
Another strength of Kelly’s that would undoubtedly improve our backline is his ability to progress the ball, either through passes or carries. This season he is averaging 10.31 progressive passes per 90 with a success rate of 67.38%, meaning that he is managing to complete four more progressive passes each game than Angelo Ogbonna was pre-injury. This ball-playing ability would be a valuable addition to a West Ham defence that has often been overly dependent on an aging Aaron Cresswell for ball progression. Craig Dawson and Diop have shown that they lack the composure to play out from the back, instead opting to go long and often unsuccessfully, so Kelly’s coolness is a trait we should absolutely be looking for.
This composure on the ball is also reflected in the number of progressive runs that Kelly is averaging per 90 (1.46). His ability to carry the ball out of defence would add a new dynamic to our build-up play as it would enable us to bring the ball up the pitch when a pass isn’t on and involve the midfield in more advanced positions, rather than forcing our midfielders to come deep and collect the ball, limiting options as we look to build an attack.
When Kelly does opt to go long, he tends to hit a cross-field switch in behind the opposition left-back, or a straighter ball that drops between the centre-halves. Given Bowen’s frequent runs in behind, these balls could be particularly threatening if Kelly were to play in this West Ham team. There have been countless times since Bowen arrived at West Ham where he has made a dangerous run in behind but a teammate has failed to spot it. Bringing Kelly into the team, a young, left-footed centre-back who is already seeing and attempting to play these line-breaking passes, could help to bring out an even more prolific side of Bowen.
The final thing to note about Kelly are his defensive fundamentals, of which there should be little concern. He is currently engaging in 5.34 defensive duels per 90, a similar number to Ogbonna, whilst boasting a slightly stronger success rate of 69.14%. And as mentioned, Kelly is a more front-footed defender too, averaging 4.79 interceptions per 90 in a team that ordinarily dominates the ball. This, alongside his progressive ability in possession, may be why he is of particular interest to us as his aggression in stepping out of defence could help us trigger more of those electric counter-attacks that we saw lots of last season.
David Moyes recently gave an interview to the London Evening Standard in which he talked about the difficulty of this window and spoke of one player who we have been knocked back on by the current club with no possibility of a transfer until the summer. We believe that this player could be Lloyd Kelly.
While we are reported to hold a keen interest, it’s hard to see why Bournemouth would sanction a sale. Kelly is the matchday captain, he’s a fantastic talent, and Bournemouth sit top of the Championship table. With promotion on the cards, there’s little chance that Parker would allow one of his best players to leave in the middle of an incredible season that could see the small south coast club return to the top flight.
Jack’s Rating: B+
Kelly would be an excellent option to cover two positions we’re fragile in at the moment. There are probably better players available that would be specific to each position but if we’re looking for someone who could competently fill both, Kelly might be that player.
Callum’s Rating: B+
Whilst there are probably better defenders on the market, Kelly ticks a lot of boxes – he’s young with a high upside, he’s progressive, he’s left-footed, and he’ll help with our homegrown quota when the likes of Noble and Fredericks depart.
Jack Elderton 