By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
West Ham manager Nuno Espírito Santo understandably doesn’t agree with my appraisal of the Hammers’ 2-2 draw with Burnley last Sunday.
According to many – myself included – West Ham had the better of the first half, sat back in the second, scored a goal on the break and then parked the bus, resulting in a 2-2 draw.
For obvious reasons, the swing in fortunes brought about a bit of footballing PTSD for Irons fans who have seen the scenario play out frequently under Nuno.
However, Espírito Santo seemed to view things differently when speaking ahead of the Charlton game.
“The way the game ended was disappointing. We had the game, controlled it for 80 minutes. It’s about analysing, transmitting the ideas and mistakes we made, so we cannot repeat them. We cannot ignore things. It’s not what we do. We take a deep look at things.”
Sorry Nuno, I didn’t see control
Hmmm, I’m not sure we did control the game for 80 minutes.
The Clarets were swarming all over the West Ham defence during the second half and, had the game gone on much longer, I suspect a Burnley win was on the cards.
That’s why I found the manner of the result considerably more concerning than the 2-2 scoreline itself.
What worries me most about the comments from the head coach is that he appears to believe his tactics were working.
They weren’t.
Momentum was handed to the opposition and the reality is that Nuno lost control of the game from the start of the second half, with every substitution making the team progressively worse.
West Ham were the better team for most of the first half against Burnley
Nuno can’t keep repeating the same mistake
This isn’t something West Ham supporters are imagining.
We’ve seen Nuno retreat before when his team has established a lead, which is why Sunday’s collapse caused such frustration.
There were actually plenty of positives in the first half and I’ve remained optimistic about what this West Ham squad can achieve under Nuno in the Championship.
But he has to learn from games like Burnley.
It’s encouraging to hear him say West Ham will take a ‘deep look’ at what went wrong. I’m just not convinced he’s looking at the same thing I am if he believes we controlled the match for 80 minutes.
So more of what we saw in the first half please, gaffer.
And considerably less of the parked bus.
We’ve already established that Nu-no Clue’s game management qualifies for the definition of insanity. Now he seems to be lacking a reality check and qualifies as a man in denial. Maybe he should have gone to Specsavers!
100% agree , we were better attacking should not of changed it . Honestly we would have won that game without the negative tactics. We need more pace still and a good central defender
He’s right. The stupid penalty gave Burley belief.
We were controlling the scoreline for 80 minutes I’ll give him that.
This tactic can only work if you have an absolute rock solid defence and even then it’s not full proof.
BFS, Moyes and NES deployed this and time and again we capitulate.
The best form of defence is to attack.
You just need to be smart and use the ball. Look at the U21s with constant movement give-and-go, with quick short passes moving down the pitch, Man City, european teams,…
Or you can go 4-4-2, especially as we have Kante, Magassa as DMs and Engels and Orford, who can defend and create. Put speed up front in the form of Solomon & whoever (Cornet is quick) so can do a high press and latch onto through balls.
For these 4 midfielders keeping possession U21 style is 2nd nature (I’m sure no problem for Engels).
NES does not always play to the strengths of his players and yet it is as obvious as a double decker in a single lane underpass.
Unfortunately if that what he thinks and he continues to deploy those
tactics surely he will have to go?…
Is he mentally challenged?
It’s sometimes the case that what a manager says in the press conference, and in the media, is not exactly what he says behind closed doors.
Especially at this moment in time at the club.
Time to wise up and admit you got it wrong
If you keep making the same tactical mistakes then you either have a massive ego problem or you are just not a very good manager and need to go
In his mind similar to most of his ilk, his answer is true, keeping goals out by luck or otherwise equals controlling it.
To everyone else we were being battered and riding our luck.
Other than Eddie Howe I still think he is the most likely manager to get us out of this division and likely to keep us in the PL.
So we have to hope this weekend we play better and score more.
We saw it all last season.
How this this fraud is considered an elite manager and just what we need to get us promoted is beyond me. He is lying once more,the sooner we get rid of him the better. He’s more negative than Moyes or Potter.
Nuno is deluded. As always we started slowly and Burnley dominated for the first 10 minutes . After that we were really quite good for the next 35 minutes and had 65% possession. Then Burnley dominated the second half and were unlucky not to win the game as we dropped deeper and deeper. If Nuno doesn’t see that we are all wasting our time
No good looking at what went wrong and then ignoring it.
The English saying is ‘You need to learn by your mistakes’.
Nuno needs to inwardly digest this.
I think he must be talking about another game!!
We completely lost control in the 2nd half. It was only a matter of time.
In the World Cup Tuchel spoke about having his ‘finishing players’ to close out a game.
Nuno by contrast just froze and did nothing til we had conceded 2 goals!!
I do not trust Nuno!
I posted this earlier in the week gonzo look back on all the matches we lost from winning positions he blamed his own team or said the opposing team improved but never ever thought he might be at fault.so he is not going to change because he believes he is right.