In ninety minutes last night west Ham’s new coach took a big stride towards righting one of the wrongs of Graham Potter’s nine month tenure: The team selections that had promised so much back in January when Potter arrived had been a source of continuing criticism.
Nuno Espírito Santo started with a twenty one year old full debutant – Soungoutou Magassa- and brought on Freddie Potts, 22 and Luis Guilherme at only 19 the youngest in the senior squad.
The energy in the second half spoke volumes. West Ham were playing without the ‘James Ward-Prowse ‘ hand brake at last.
Graham Potter, who spoke in promising terms of giving youth a pathway to the team had turned out to be a progress blocker. After Ollie Scarles’ debut the young defender couldn’t get a sniff. Along with Magassa, Potts and Guilherme who featured, Callum Marshall was also on the substitutes bench.
Competition for places
In one game the new West Ham coach might not have revolutionised the playing style or fixed the inherent flaws but he will have revitalised flagging enthusiasm from young talents across the club. Now the competition for places can begin on a level playing field with ‘Nuno’ having shown he’s quite happy to trust in young players in a way that his predecessor clearly was not.
Potts didn’t let him or the side down: Luis Guilherme clearly has a lot to learn but looks now as if he will get more than a couple of minutes as an afterthought.
Soungoutou Magassa- whilst at just 21 needs a little time, on occasion looked brilliantly suited to the midfield role. From a first showing, he and Fernandes can likely become good quality midfield components to be the steel behind Paquetá’s showmanship, strutting and stumbling.
Too early to tell, and Arsenal away at the weekend will have us all hiding behind the sofa again – but there could well be some ‘green shoots’ of recovery for claret and blue fans.
West Ham are only implementing non competitive sport policy. It’s taking part, not winning that’s Important.
It’s been a long time coming (Sam Cooke) but a change had to happen to save this team.
Intriguing to see Magassa and Potts. Two different styles of play; it’s a hunch but I reckon those two could complement each other really, really, well. Not now, definitely not, as they are learning/adapting, but longer term I hope to see them on the pitch playing next to each other in a season or two’s time. They could form a good partnership, I think.
Magassa more physical, very effective and technically very good, can break forward carrying the ball, while Potter was really stylish, I thought he brought a touch of class to the pitch – but am worried getting carried away with it all – looking forward to watching those 2 players evolve.
Extremely glad to see Guilherme come on and look competent. He’s been on a training pitch for 2 seasons roughly and that must be damaging. If Espirito helps him with advice, it’s possible WHU have another fast, technically gifted and exciting player to come.
Hope Espirito liked what he saw and playing youngsters will continue all season long.
Can’t wait for the next match.
IT SEEMS TO ME THAT MOST TOP COACHES ARE BLIND TO HAVING FAVOURITES, ALTHOUGH THE FANS CAN READILY SEE THE ISSUE. FAR TOO MANY TOP (AND NOT SO TOP) PLAYERS ARE PAST THEIR SELL-BY DATE, YET CONTINUE SEASON AFTER SEASON. I APPRECIATE THAT CONTRACTS ARE IN PLACE, SO THE PLAYERS HAVE TO BE PAID BUT THAT’S NO EXCUSE FOR CONTINUING TO PICK THOSE THAT AREN’T ASSISTING THE TEAM, THEY’RE ALSO HOLDING IT BACK.
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, ON ALL COUNTS. BEFORE POTTER WENT, I WAS CRYING OUT FOR POTTER TO BE PLAYED INSTEAD OF WARD-PROWSE AND MARSHALL UP FRONT. IT’S A SHAME ABOUT SCARLES LOSING FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES TO FILL THE LEFT BACK ROLE BUT DIOUF IS AWESOME
Both Soucek and JWP are too slow. When both are in the side it’s too much too slow, add Rodriguez too and we’re like slow motion. Just in the pedestrians not playing things are immediately more lively. I’ve been saying for a long time that too much too slow is an issue, well it seems that not any more it’s not.
Another problem was defensive shape, Nuno’s stock in trade is getting defensive shape right so I have confidence that will be one of his first priorities.
It was good of Nuno to take a point against Everton. However, Graham Potter has never lost a single match against a Moyes team in eight encounters, so I still believe he could have achieved the same result.
I find it somewhat sad to see Nuno Espírito Santo now using players that were signed by Graham Potter and Kyle Macaulay — Fernandes, Diouf, Walker-Peters, Magassa and Julio. I would have liked to see these players together in Graham Potter’s more positional style of play, something that will now never happen. This, combined with players like Bowen, Summerville, and Wan-Bissaka — whom I personally rate very highly — makes it all the more unfortunate.
I also feel that Paquetá has seemed weighed down by the legal disputes and perhaps hasn’t done himself justice over the past year.
Now, a new challenge awaits Nuno Espírito Santo against Arsenal. I recall that Graham Potter doesn’t have a negative record against them — in fact, he has four wins with three different teams.
I do feel a bit sorry for Graham Potter, but then again — who ever said life was fair?
It was exciting to see the youth being given the opportunity, that alone will get many on side.
To be fair to Potter though, whilst we would undoubtedly had to see JWP in the team, the youngsters were all due to be on the bench given they didn’t play Friday night. So we would have seen some of them play. It was clearly going to take longer for Potter to assimilate them was the problem, he needs to speed up his building or learn how to get results whilst building if he wants a future at the top level.
Let’s be totally honest, Nuno is a quality coach and we finally showed what we are capable of last night.
We wasted millions and 2 years by Sullivan & Brady appointing 2 coaches who should never have got the job.
Brady has to go! Sullivan if he doesn’t want to sell should hire a proper CEO with a proven track record of football operations.
At last we have a manager that players will respect and who can drastically improve our position in the league.
Any company has to lead from the top. It’s time to change the Leadership Team so genuine progress can be achieved.
Why do us mere fans see all the things that a highly paid coach (manager) can’t? The top coaches generally don’t need a boot from the fans as they know best. But the fact a potential England coach could not see a large billboard with flashing lights that advertised the young players we have available to us is simply mind blowing.