Nuno Espírito Santo has not enjoyed the best of starts to his West Ham United career.
The former Nottingham Forest boss arrived at the London Stadium after losing his job under very public circumstances. Even so, many supporters were pleased to see him come to east London — largely because, at the time, he was viewed as an upgrade on Graham Potter.
Unfortunately, it has not quite worked out that way. Espírito Santo’s win percentage currently looks even worse than Potter’s, although there is plenty of mitigation to consider.
He has inherited a mess of a first-team situation, shaped by Potter’s struggles and an unbalanced squad assembled under owner David Sullivan. Add in the fact he has not signed a single player of his own, coupled with a brutal early fixture list, and there have been genuine reasons to excuse the poor start. Those reasons, however, are beginning to run out.
Nuno has had to clean up Graham Potters mess
A Test He Must Pass
Saturday’s opponents, Fulham, are beatable — especially with three of Marco Silva’s key players away on Africa Cup of Nations duty. The Cottagers also did West Ham a favour on Monday by beating Sean Dyche’s Forest in a low-quality encounter.
While few expected the Hammers to travel to the Etihad Stadium and take points off Manchester City, expectations are very different against Fulham. There is little reason for Nuno to experiment with his selection, particularly with reinforcements expected to arrive shortly.
The excuses are thinning out. West Ham supporters now need to see what the manager can deliver — tactically and from a man-management perspective. The eye test suggests the team has improved. Now it needs to be reflected where it really matters: on the points column.
No excuses needed. We have a sh.. squad. A dog’s breakfast of incompatible talent.
Potter is surely the only manager in the world that believes you don’t need a centre forward. No wonder he is a failure.
Things in the premier league have changed, and managers have realised teams need to press as well as defend.
To sit back is no more an option to gain success
Gonzo, he has improved the team, but remember that’s only by changing attitudes and using the under 21’s in the team mostly. I still see the main problem as up front, no centre forward is dum in my eyes, no goal threat, teams don’t worry about keeping players back, and when they have the ball I always think defence starts with the forward line! Need a young fast fit forward!
I have also been critical of Nuno, mainly because some of his decisions at critical times have been just as ‘odd’ as any made by Potter and Lopetegui. My opinion, for what it is worth, is that Nuno is one of a number of coaches that are just middle of the road. We have already used four of them and we do not need to test any more, such as Parker, Dyche, Silva, Amorim, Postecoglou and so on. Same level, same results. We need someone, maybe Max Hahn, to use the tools available and go on a global search for someone who knows what man management is about and understands all of the tactical variations needed whatever the circumstances for each game, not just blindly “Well it worked last week!”. We need more than that in today’s world. The problem is that the quality of our chosen coaches matches the quality of our boardroom, so change is going to be hard to come by.
Three points are a must against Fulham, nothing less. No poor performances, no experiments, no bad substitutions. It’s do or die time now…
What manager could do better with three useless centre backs , no serious centre forward and no cover for the eleven or so players that are just about Premiership level?
Relatively the worst squad in the premiership with so many unplayable players.
If we get relegated we should stick with NES, he’s done enough with such a weak squad to confirm he is better than a few recent managers.
The concerning thing is he’s come in without his management team as if he or West Ham or both aren’t serious about turning the club round.
Gonzo you’ve got this one the wrong way around Its Nuno who will quit shortly before hes pushed probably the next 2 weeks It’s happening
Nuno should designate a bench with fewer defenders and rather give himself more attacking alternatives.
Really! so did Potter not also inherit a lopsided squad from Lope/Sullivan £140M spent on mainly poor over paid players, Nunos team selection has been bizarre on several occasions, playing ultra defensive and losing games from winning positions, playing the waste of space Paqueta who gives us nothing, he is no better than the previous two managers we are going down as Nuno has not got a clue
Yes, Potter also inherited a lopsided squad. But, he was able to sign Ferguson, Igor, Fernandes, Diouf and Hermansen as well as having almost a year in the job. He was really judged after the summer.
hence the reason I said the scrutiny on Nuno really starts now because he’s run out of excuses. Try not to get too agitated or take offence.
Hi Gonzo, no offence taken, Just pointing out he has not done well since coming in,
Yes none of these players are his, but to keep playing the likes of Paqueta and Kilman (till the last couple of games) is very odd, but yes let’s see what happens in the next 5 games
Nuno is our best chance of staying up. He deserves our support. There has been improvements in team performance but it needs to continue if we’re to get our off this mess. Nuno needs serious backing by the board as well as this January window is critical in giving us a fighting chance to strengthen to avoid relegation. I like Nuno’s attitude, his openness to involving younger players and at this stage, he deserves the benefit of doubt for some of the quirky selection decisions. He’s only been in the job for a matter of a few weeks, the club will not get anyone better at this stage of the season, so let’s really get behind this guy!