It would seem that West Ham United defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka was none too impressed with the way the team capitulated against Chelsea FC, and has called for more ruthlessness.
Ahead of the Hammers’ trip to Burnley FC tomorrow, Obi-Wan appeared to take a subtle dig at the tactics of manager Nuno Espírito Santo at Stamford Bridge.
There was no direct criticism of the Max Kilman substitution, but last season’s Player of the Year clearly felt West Ham should have kept attacking, saying:
“To get two goals early, and to feel comfortable during that first half, I think if we got another goal, that would have finished it off. We should have continued how we started, and should have finished off the game quite early.”
To be fair, what Wan-Bissaka says isn’t vastly different to Nuno’s own comments, with the manager also admitting he wanted more of what his side produced in the first half.
The only problem, of course, is that bringing on a central defender at the expense of a forward was always going to make that unlikely.
Squad Limitations Still Forcing Nuno’s Hand
And at the risk of sounding like a scratched record (or buffering Spotify for our younger readers), I do have sympathy for Nuno, bearing in mind the squad simply doesn’t allow for like-for-like replacements.
That said, there are ways to stay on the front foot and inject energy without resorting to a flat 4-4-2.
It’s also worth pointing out that Chelsea possess the kind of quality Burnley simply don’t have — so hopefully we won’t retreat as deeply at Turf Moor.
It’s good to see some of the players directly or indirectly saying what most of us fans are saying. I wish we had a different captain who might well air this more openly with the manager. That is not meant as a swipe at Bowen as a man and player but he needs to be more Billy Bonds.
AWB was totally right regarding the Chelsea game. The only blot on his copybook was he missed an absolute sitter in the first half which would have taken us out of sight. But he was our best player by a distance the first half.
Gonzo, squad limitations are made by the worse than poor decisions made in the transfer department. Old injury prone worn out players bought for big money and then given away because on one else wants them.The young player’s we do have not been given enough chances, and this week came up with another glaring example. After Chelsea game we need 2 more forwards to keep the pressure on up front was all the talk. So next day we sell an under 21 player to Luton. Stupid is the only way of explaining it. Get Sulivan out, apparently he is in charge of transfers.
Sullivan has NOTHING to do with the youth team,21s or loan deals. Luton activated the option to buy included in the loan arrangement, nothing to do with DS. Gideon is an OK player at League One level, don’t make out we’ve lost a Jermaine Defoe.
Nuno needs to learn quick . On the hour , Pablo off , Traore on as CF to force the opposition defense back toward their own penalty area thus allowing Westham’s defense to move up the pitch a little . Subtle tactical changes to win matches .
“I do have sympathy for Nuno, bearing in mind the squad simply doesn’t allow for like-for-like replacements”
I don’t 🙂
He got rid of Earthy, Casey, and Marshall all of could have added to his like for like options, partiuclarly Marshall, who’s got the energy and technical ability to be a good sub for Pablo. That was just stupid IMO
Spot on Tony. Marshall would have been a perfect striker sub for the final 20 mins or so and it’s incomprehensible why Earthy was allowed to go out on loan as well as selling Paqueta.
Nuno, got to get it out of his head, that we can win, by defending, we haven’t all season.
One question is “why were the substitutions made?” If it was injury related, he has little choice, but if it was simply some players running out of steam, that is a whole different problem. The ruthless attitude is exactly what is needed, Chelsea or Burnley, they should turn up the heat and try to crush the opposition, especially when you have a negative goal difference that is 8 worse than the two teams above you. That being said, I can see Nuno making more questionable decisions before he is done.
maybe he should have stopped the crosses coming in and reacted for the second goal when the Chelsea player ran past him to knock it in an empty net… just saying.
Stop making excuses for players.u mean to tell me that they can’t run for 90mins.as for Nuno stop tinkering in 2nd half of games. Pathetic.excuses excuses. They soon moan if salary was docked