West Ham United were a beaten team at Elland Road – going down 2-1 away to Leeds – and, for most of the evening, Nuno Espirito Santo looked like a beaten man.
Even by their standards, to render their head coach so answer-less, so lifeless, and so visibly defeated after only four Premier League matchdays must be a record. A new low didn’t seem possible when Graham Potter was put out of his misery a month ago.
Yet, if you ever find yourself walking a road called ‘Rock Bottom’, have a little glance into the sewers and you might spot a few familiar, suitably-dejected faces.
From your correspondent’s position five rows from the dugout at an icey, drizzly and Bovril-scented Elland Road, the look on Nuno Espirito Santo’s face felt almost as worrying as the performance produced by his West Ham United charges.
Leeds’ opening goal, Brendan Aaronson tapped home from an Alphonse Areola parry before thousands of supporters had even taken their seats, brought about a reaction not of fury, but of apparent resignation. A shake of the head, an expression of pure bewilderment. Notably, there was barely a hint of surprise.
Only four games in, it appears that Nuno has already become accustomed to such self-imposed implosions.
Leeds deepen Nuno Espirito Santo’s and West Ham United’s misery at Elland Road
Even that infamous Derby County side had more points than West Ham at this stage of the season. Five, compared to the Hammers’ four. Any hope Nuno had of adding to that tally dissipated once Joe Rodon doubled the hosts lead a quarter of an hour after kick-off.
And if Nuno’s face painted quite a bleak picture with only three minutes on the clock, then his reaction to Leeds’ second goal – and the concession of the corner kick which created it – said more than words ever could.
Ollie Scarles gave away the set-piece. Even before the ball was swung onto the meaty head of Joe Rodon, Nuno was shaking his head again. It is almost as if he knew what was coming. Then again, you didn’t need Derren Brown to tell you what was about to happen.
There was a sense of inevitability about Joe Rodon scoring against the team who reportedly wanted to sign him under David Moyes. The Welshman is the ninth player to net from a set-piece situation against the Hammers in just nine Premier League matches. How they could do with a presence and a leader like him, at both ends of the pitch.
Jarrod Bowen says West Ham must ‘face up to reality’
To think, Nuno felt that West Ham were making progress in the dead-ball department as recently as three weeks ago. Suddenly, after a third successive and typically-pitiful defeat, any potential steps in the right direction have been undone by an almighty stumble backwards.
The Hammers punch-drunk and looking about as stable on their feet as a rowdy larger lout knocked onto the seat of his pants, vomit-stained and an eye as black as the one sported by a lumbering Tomas Soucek.
“Obviously, when you’re second-bottom in the league and you’ve won one game all season, the feeling is low,” Jarrod Bowen, again the only positive on a night of unbridled negativity, sighed at full-time. “I think the only way that’s going to change is if we as players step up, show some character, roll our sleeves up and get ready for the fight.
“It’s easy to say, and it’s hard to do sometimes, but we have to do that. I think we need that week in, week out, because in my mind that’s the only way. I’ve told the players that we need to pull our finger out now, because this is the Premier League, and no-one’s going to give us anything.
“We have to face up to the reality of where we are, and get results.”
Nuno reacts to latest Hammers loss as team selection causes confusion again
Lucas Paqueta had a pop at El Hadji Malick Diouf after a breakdown in communication at one point in the first-half. Substitute Freddie Potts desperately attempted to lift his teammates spirits with a wave of his arms, albeit without any noticeable results.
And the liveliest Nuno looked, as the rain bounced off his bonce and a hangdog expression fixed permanently upon his face, was when rollocking the fourth official as a decision went against his beleaguered outfit.
That he changed his entire system midway through the first half – a stricken Scarles forced off and Callum Wilson entering the fray – hardly suggested that this was a man with a plan, either. West Ham hired Nuno to give them some direction. Some stability.
A sense of togetherness and coherence. If anything – Scarles and Aaron Wan-Bissaka lining up on the wrong flanks, Andy Irving picked ahead of Mateus Fernandes, Soungoutou Magassa and Potts – it feels even more confused now than even in the lowest of Potter-era lows.
Chants from the away end – nearly 200 miles from home – ranged from ‘sack the board’ and to ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’. There was even a sarcasm-dripped rendition of ‘we’ve had a shot’ after Bowen pulled a tame effort wide of the post.
“We started the game very bad. Very bad in the way we approach our defensive situation in the box,” said Nuno, the closest he has come to a ‘new manager bounce’ being a battling 1-1 draw at Everton two days after he put pen to paper on a three-year deal.
“We allow the contact, we allow the second shot on target [from which Aaronson scored]. Then comes a corner. It’s a goal from a corner, something that we slightly improved in the previous game, but they punished us again.
“Commitment, focus and responsibility is all that we want from our players.”
Even that, at this stage, feels beyond a group who appear dangerously accepting of their fate before the Halloween masks even leave the supermarket shelves.
