By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
West Ham face a late decision over Taty Castellanos ahead of Friday night’s game against Wrexham, but it was another part of Nuno Espírito Santo’s update that really caught my attention.
The Argentine missed Tuesday night’s 3-2 victory at Bolton Wanderers after suffering tendon pain against Derby County.
Speaking to the official West Ham website, Nuno confirmed Taty is improving. But he also revealed the striker is only “one of the players” who needs assessing.
“It’s been a tight schedule, and we have a lot of things to assess,” said Nuno.
“Taty is one of the players in that situation, among others.”
That last bit is interesting.
West Ham Changes Look Inevitable
There were certainly some tired legs on show against Bolton. West Ham are currently playing twice a week and this particular turnaround is even tighter than usual.
Tuesday night to Friday gives Nuno one less recovery day than he would have had with a Saturday fixture.
As we highlighted before the trip to Bolton, the Championship schedule is already starting to bite.
For that reason, I’d say there is absolutely zero chance Nuno fields the same starting XI against Wrexham.
He was probably going to rotate anyway.
His suggestion that there are other players being assessed only makes changes even more likely.
Espirito Santo has hinted at ‘other’ West Ham injuries
I Wouldn’t Risk Taty
If Castellanos is only borderline fit, I wouldn’t risk him. I’d probably start Joël Piroe anyway because he is the more natural goalscorer.
But I do think Taty is incredibly important to Nuno’s preferred attack, particularly alongside Pablo. We saw at Bolton that the Pablo and Mohamadou Kanté partnership simply didn’t work.
I made the same point when looking at Pablo’s difficult night at Bolton. West Ham or at least the version with Pablo in it probably did miss Taty.
It wasn’t really until Piroe came on during the second half that the attack started functioning better. And that change formed part of the reason West Ham’s stronger squad eventually made the difference.
So yes, Taty matters.
But with two games a week and a long Championship season ahead, risking him on Friday if he’s not completely right would make very little sense.
The bigger question now is who else Nuno was referring to when he said “among others”.
Are you sure Pablo isn’t the singer from Boney M !
I think Kanté at number 10 was a mistake, he is a box to box player not a playmaker. Mukasa would have suited that position better.
You think Pablo had a tough night, our first goal doesn’t get scored if he doesn’t get a touch? He disrupted their defence all night long and ran himself into the ground. Maybe stop think linking of him as a striker and reframe your view, like Joelinton at Newcastle also not a striker, Nuno has created a role for him that he is effective at. We win games when he plays, we don’t win as many when he doesn’t there is more to football than aesthetics the same with every sport, judging through a narrow prism which is your thing not his thing might be worth a look back and reflection, that you can’t understand why we win with him and don’t by a factor of 50% without is not a new thing it was the same in the PL he is arguably our most important player for that reason alone and it has nothing to do with his goal output.
Totally agree with this. There are parts of the game that aren’t specifically recorded as stats. The stat you can judge him on is running, which can cause defences all kinds of problems, such as hurried poor passes, poor first touches, following his runs which frees up space for other attackers. Any of those things attributed to him with a stat? Nope!
Time for Nuno to put his stubbornness behind him and incorporate all available players.
Even those he don’t see eye to eye with.
Premiership first fall outs second.
It’s the same problem that all the other teams have to cope with. Look at how bad it is at Millwall. Against Wrexham they lost 2 players in that match alone, one who came on as a sub.
Poor Millwall!
🎻🎻🎻🎼🎶🎵🎶
⚒️🫧🫧🫧😋
Pablo wouldn’t work with anybody. Hes the worst forward I’ve ever seen in a west ham shirt
As long as Pablo is “rested” for the rest of the season we will be fine.