A bizarre team selection, an insipid performance, two highly avoidable goals conceded, deja vu for Nuno Espirito Santo and West Ham United. We see your Brentford, and we raise you Leeds four days later.
Hey, at least they scored a goal. That is more than can be said of West Ham United’s other defeats in the Nuno Espirito Santo era. Small mercies, indeed.
In what almost felt like some kind of ironic performance art, the visitors’ response to Mateus Fernandes halving the deficit in the 90th minute included just about everything a team should not do when chasing a last-gasp equaliser.
Silly fouls given away in Leeds’ own third. Short free-kicks when they needed to go long. Jean-Clair Todibo even picked up a booking one minute into stoppage time, seemingly for kicking the ball away after conceding a foul. It would have made sense if Joe Rodon – the eventual Elland Road matchwinner – had done that at the other end.
Then again, there is not much which makes sense at West Ham these days.
From the continued and baffling underperforming of an expensively-assembled squad, to Nuno Espirito Santo’s team selections. The likes of Tony Cottee and Tony Gale had called for Callum Wilson. Instead, the Hammers got Lucas Paqueta moonlighting as a false nine again.
A false nine, when Nuno had a very real one on the bench. For the second match in a row, Upton Park icon Cottee was left with a sinking feeling as early as an hour and a quarter before kick-off, when the team news was announced.
Tony Cottee baffled by Nuno Espirito Santo’s Callum Wilson decision in Leeds 2-1 West Ham United
Cottee was not alone in questioning the manager’s thought process when Brentford came to town on Monday.
Ollie Scarles and Aaron Wan-Bissaka on the ‘wrong’ flanks? Andy Irving ahead of Soungoutou Magassa and Freddie Potts? No centre-forward? Many West Ham fans wondered if Nuno had ‘lost the plot’. Cottee, too, appears to be at his wit’s end only four matches into that three-year contract.
“Seriously, no Callum Wilson,” a familiarly-bemused Cottee wrote on X.
Of course, Wilson would enter the fray pretty sharpish. With 25 minutes on the clock no less.
An injury to Ollie Scarles necessitating an early substitution, and an entire ripping up of the blueprint from the man in the dugout. For the second game in a row, Nuno changed his system before the second-half even got underway.
Cottee says Hammers are ‘in serious trouble’ after Elland Road loss
If you were really, desperately seeking any positives, at least, you could point out that Nuno at least appears to realise when something isn’t working.
Though, with Leeds already 2-0 up and cruising by the time Wilson entered the fray, he could do with picking an XI which clicks from minute one next time out against Newcastle.
“We are in serious trouble,” Cottee adds. West Ham now have fewer points than Derby County did during their record-setting 11-point campaign in 2007/08.
“Another really poor performance. The starting line-up didn’t make sense. Play your best players in their best positions.
“We desperately need a new striker but Callum Wilson has to at least start the game.”
