The transfer window may have closed last week but West Ham United are reportedly looking at bolstering their squad from the pool of free agents currently available to sign.
Having seen a number of defenders depart during the window, West Ham are supposedly looking at John Egan and Joel Matip as potential additions to their squad with reported talks underway between the club and player’s representatives.
An experienced pair of centre backs
Both defenders have had long and successful careers despite those successes differing in stature. John Egan started his career with Sunderland in their youth team but failed to make an appearance for the Black Cats’ first team. The defender went onto play for a number of clubs including Crystal Palace, Bradford City, Southend United and Gillingham before joining Brentford in 2016.
After a two year spell with the Bees, Egan rejoined his former loan club Sheffield United and made 223 appearances for the club with whom he had the most success within his career, winning promotion to the Premier League in 2018-19 and 2022-23. The former Sunderland youth player has, to date, made 36 appearances for the Republic of Ireland after making his debut in 2017.
The 31 year old hardly featured during the Blades’ horrid campaign last time out and found himself without a club heading into the new season having seen his contract expire at the end of the season.
Joel Matip also finds himself without a club despite his impressive CV. The defender progressed through the youth system of German side Schalke 04 and after making his debut in 2009, went on to make 258 appearances for the former Bundesliga champions. During his time with Schalke, the defender was called up to the Cameroonian national side and made 21 appearances for the Les Lions Indomptables before retiring due to unhappiness with the national sides set up and experience.
Matip joined Liverpool in 2016 and in his eight years with the Merseyside club he made over 200 appearances winning the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup. Despite his achievements, the 33 year old did not have his contract extended at the end of the 2023-24 season and finds himself in the market for a move on a free transfer.
With both experienced defenders available on a free transfer outside of the transfer window, West Ham have reportedly looked to strike up deals to bring them to the London Stadium for the remainder of the 2024-25 season.
Would these signings work for West Ham?
Having seen Kurt Zouma and Nayef Aguerd depart for Al-Orobah and Real Socidad respectively on loan, the Hammers are in need to add some defensive cover for the likes of Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo. Egan and Matip may offer West Ham the opportunity to do this.
Despite picking up an injury ruling him out for the second half of the season, Matip provided defensive security and the ability to play out from the back. On average, the 33 year old won an average 4.94 duels and 3.22 aerial duels per 90 minutes with a 61.4% and 73.4% success rate respectively.
One of the attributes that Matip was known for at Liverpool was his ability to dribble and pass out from the back. Last season’s pass accuracy was 87.7% with an average of 56.8 passes on average per 90 minutes and during the 2021-22 season, when Matip played 31 games, his dribble success was 90%.
When looking at John Egan, despite his figures being from the Championship, he posted similar stats to those of Matip. On average Egan won 5.85 duels with a 61.5% success rate and 4.03 aerial duels with a 61.9% per 90 minutes played. The 31 year old had the same dribble success at Matip with 90% success rate throughout the 2022-23 season.
When comparing both players, there is no doubt that Matip would offer more with his experience of winning trophies with Liverpool and being coached by one of the best managers in the country in Jurgen Klopp. However, Matip has had a history of picking up injuries and having been out since the new year with a serious achilles injury, may not be the best option of the two at this current moment.
The likelihood is that Matip would take longer to recover and get up to match fitness. Therefore opening the door for Egan to be the better signing given he is firstly, two years younger than Matip and has a cleaner injury record. The Ireland international is likely to earn a smaller wage than the former Liverpool defender which would be ideal for a signing that is likely to be back-up throughout the season.