Exit-linked midfielder receives another red-card in massive 3-0 defeat | OneFootball

Edson Alvarez quickly became a fan favourite in his debut season at the London Stadium under former manager David Moyes, but has been highly inconsistent for Julen Lopetegui's side in the ongoing season. The former Ajax star struggled to defend against Chelsea forward Nicolas Jackson in the 3-0 Premier League defeat two months ago, and took a red-card in the following 5-1 away Carabao Cup defeat against Liverpool.

Meanwhile, Alvarez was even dropped from the starting lineup for three consecutive matches and the 26-year-old is also rumoured to be leaving West Ham in order to join Serie A side Milan in the next summer transfer window. In the previous 2-1 win over Manchester United at home, Alvarez again looked unconvincing with his pace and ball-playing abilities which led the Hammers to defend a lot of counter-attack chances inside the first half.

Exit-linked midfielder receives another red-card in massive 3-0 defeat

Recently, Alvarez was started alongside Guido Rodriguez in the defensive midfield role, but Nottingham Forest again took advantage of West Ham's lacklustre pace in the middle of the park by scoring an early 1-0 goal before half-time. Alvarez left in-form Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood unmarked on the first goal, who continued his prolific goalscoring form by scoring in the fourth consecutive league match for the home side.

Towards the end of the first half, Alvarez again made a mistimed attempted tackle on Anthony Elanga despite West Ham having all of their defenders near the box. The 26-year-old midfielder was shown his second red-card across all competitions this season and West Ham again had to play with ten players for the second half.

Therefore, Nottingham Forest scored two more goals in the match to register a comfortable 3-0 win, which resulted in a fifth league defeat for the Hammers. Speculations are increasing over Alvarez's departure from the London Stadium in the upcoming transfer windows and West Ham could be open to sell the defensive midfielder in the January transfer window as well, following his underwhelming performances in recent months.

On top of that, Alvarez will be unavailable for the next Premier League fixture against Everton and West Ham will need to make a lot of lineup changes to take some important points in that match due to the absence of both star forward Mohammed Kudus as well as Edson Alvarez.