Thilo Kehrer: ‘By being smart and having help from the team, you can stop Mbappé’

“I was never scared to look for challenges,” Thilo Kehrer says as he thinks about leaving Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Neymar behind for a fight for Premier League survival. The defender is in a thoughtful but confident mood. He has not had an easy time since moving to England last summer and yet, as he prepares to face Tottenham this afternoon, there is no sign the Germany international regrets swapping dominance at Paris Saint‑Germain for a season of unease at West Ham.

“I was always open to things that would challenge me in a way that might risk struggling,” Kehrer says. “But I always knew that overcoming this would make me better as a player and grow as a person. It has been the absolute right step. The Premier League is different to Ligue 1 or the Bundesliga. It was exciting to watch the league. It’s even more exciting to play in it.”

The belief is good to hear because things have not gone to plan for Kehrer so far. He conceded a penalty on his Premier League debut, scored an unfortunate own goal when West Ham drew with Spurs in August and has been beaten too easily on a few occasions. He could be forgiven for wondering if he was made for English football. Yet Kehrer is calm. He started when PSG lost the Champions League final to Bayern Munich in 2020; perhaps he just needs time to show why West Ham bought him.

“When I came in I had a long pre‑season,” Kehrer says. “I was thrown straight in and I needed a feel for the team first. The fastest way you get that is by playing. There is a possibility of things not going the way you want and we had a difficult start. We had the performances, but couldn’t get the results.

“We had players coming into a system which had worked for two years, changing the balance of the