By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
Wolverhampton Wanderers boss César Peixoto has made a sensational claim ahead of Tuesday night’s Championship clash with West Ham, insisting his own winger Fer López is better than Jarrod Bowen.
And while the Wolves boss was clearly backing his own man, it’s another little subplot ahead of a game West Ham and Nuno Espírito Santo desperately need to win.
West Ham are under huge pressure to get a result following an awful start to life in the EFL Championship. To make matters worse, high-flying Wolves look to have navigated the drop from Premier League football far better than the Hammers.
As things stand, West Ham are floundering on just two points while Wolves are unbeaten and sitting second.
A win for the visitors on Tuesday night would take them to ten points and send them top of the Championship, while West Ham would remain stuck on two and drifting towards the drop zone.
Nuno will need to figure out how to get the best out of Jarrod Bowen
“Fer Is Better” Says Wolves Boss
Fer López has certainly given his manager reason to be confident.
The 21-year-old scored twice in Wolves’ 3-1 victory over Preston earlier this month and has been one of the standout players during their impressive start to the Championship season.
But Peixoto went considerably further when asked to compare his winger with West Ham captain Bowen.
“Fer is better, because he is my player! For me my player is always the better one. For me, it’s clear like that and I don’t compare them because Fer is better, with all due respect to the player from West Ham.”
It’s certainly one way of backing your player whilst subtlety failing the name the player (Bowen) he was asked directly about.
Bowen remains West Ham’s biggest attacking threat and opposition teams have already started doubling up on him this season.
As we saw during the draw at Watford, that leaves Nuno needing to find other ways of hurting teams when his captain is crowded out.
Pressure Firmly On West Ham
The contrast between the two relegated clubs could hardly be greater heading into the game.
As outlined in our West Ham v Wolves preview, Nuno’s team are still searching for their first Championship victory while their opponents arrive unbeaten and scoring freely.
If West Ham lose this, I genuinely believe Nuno’s job could be on the line.
Peixoto and Wolves, meanwhile, appear to be enjoying themselves.
Perhaps Bowen can give the Wolves manager something else to think about on Tuesday night.
As for the pre-match team-talk… Nuno already has one handed to him by his opposite number.
He obviously didn’t see Bowen against Southampton in the carabao cup recently then. I hope Bowen shoves his words back down his throat.
Graham Potter with dyed black hair or Adam Sandler is in charge at Wolves
Yes Wolves are currently more prepared for the Championship than us, but to be fair they knew they were going to be relegated at Christmas when we were still in with a shout of staying up on the last day.
How as our manager given Nuno his team talk, any manager would say his player is better, then again it’s West arrm who FINK they are untouchable.
I don’t Fink it’s WHU who fink they are untouchable it’s the expectation that comes from supporting a big club no matter how badly it’s managed and run. As long as WH don’t go bankrupt the club won’t spend 30 years in the lower divisions.
I think Wolves are favourites for the game Peixoto plays how Nuno should with high intensity pressing and very direct.
If Alvarez and Magassa are fit they should be starting so we have the physicality in midfield that has been missing so far without a recognised CDM would also start Pablo up top with Mukasa behind so we have more ball winning capability there.
Harry used to say you need to earn the right to play and that means controlling central midfield and going 1 or 2 ahead with combative ugly football.
Nuno should be showing this message to the team and firing them up, it’s clearly meant to intimidate a team low on confidence so we should be going all out to put them down.
To be fair it’s probably an accurate statement at the minute.
Football manager praising his own player go figure eh…Nuno what do you think of Fer and Bowen? well errr it is simple Fer for some reason goes forwards attempts to find his own players in our box and also shoots at our goal but can he sit deep and play a square ball and get lost out on the wing the way Bowen does…well i think we all know under my tuition Bowen has learned that part of the game very well.
😊 thanks for the laugh!
I would not put any importance on the Wolves’ manager’s opinion. He quite openly states that, “Fer is better because he is my player”. That is equivalent to a boy in the playground saying, “my dad is better than your dad”. What worries me is whether Wolves are better than West Ham. On the evidence, so far, they are ! Could be put in their place tonight. I very much hope that they are, but I tend to agree with your forecasted result. Hope we are both wrong.
Whu need to make him eat his words.
Lopez is a good player and Nuno should have put a plan in place to ensure he doesn’t create havoc.