The Wolves win would seem a watershed moment for West Ham’s two January recruits who took a while to get started, after arriving at striker-starved London Stadium in January.
Somewhat controversial at the time was the signing of virtual unknown Pablo Felipe – more so as time has passed, with question marks hanging over the transfer fee and the amount West Ham paid for the Brazilian.
Taty Castellanos was the more conventional of the two signings, having been successful across the Atlantic in the MLS and more recently with Serie A’s Lazio.
This weekend’s two goals in quick succession – the fastest in the Premier League this season – will have convinced many fence-sitters of the value of the pair thanks to the neat exchange between the two that led to West Ham’s second goal.
Pablo’s neat footwork for Castellanos’ first Wolves strike has finally got him off the mark with a West Ham assist. The pair seem to sum up Nuno’s version of West Ham United: Industrious, hardworking and playing first and foremost for their team mates.
Taty and Pablo are the epitome of this new West Ham under Nuno
As Mateus Fernandes states on whufc.com , their assimilation into the club and all of Nuno’s team building is starting to pay dividends, after a difficult first few weeks:
“It’s not been easy for him [ Castellanos] or Pablo, coming to England to play in the Premier League. I felt the same when I first moved, so it’s our job to help make things easy for them. I speak Portuguese and Spanish, and the important thing is they are happy, which I think you can see on the pitch.”
More than carefully curated team bonding and slick PR work, it seems we are seeing the fruition of all the team bonding work with a real coming together of a ‘collective’, with the right ethics to pull together – unlike one relegation rival in particular.
It is no co-incidence that now that certain divisive high profile players have left the club, West Ham appears more ‘United’ under Nuno than at any stage in the last couple of years.
With respect to Pablo & Taty they also bring a of of movement up front. They naturally interchange positions a lot and then the team also has Summerville who roams into midfield, or all the way back to pick up the ball, Bowen less but does cut inside, while Taty is not a no 9 tied to the penalty spot by a yard or two of string.
All their movement means I have seen Taty at 10, Pablo at 9, or both in the box. There is a wide range of movement across the front 4, also Traore is capable of doing the same. Incredibly difficult to defend against and drags defenders around.
This might be part of NES/Jimez’s system? Or just fortuitous, but they also bring this to the team in what is, I think, is a 4-2-3-1 (same as Bayern – just saying).
From what iv just read it very much looks like Nuno has got us in a forward motion and wanting to play for the club, shirt and get us out of the relegation battle that we’re in. it was plan 2 see the way they celebrated together after there bonding and loving playing with each other. and i think there’s a very good chance that Fernandes given a little incentive and we stay up will be a ”Hammer” next season. the key is getting rid of all the ”DEAD-WOOD” that are out on loan and just sign Disasi that’s a ”MUST-DO” C O Y I’s