Those attempting to find the culprit for West Ham United’s woes may often feel like Poirot at the beginning of a football-themed Agatha Christie ‘whodunnit’, with suspects aplenty.
Does the blame lie at the feet of Nuno Espirito Santo, or his West Ham United players? Or, instead, was it chairman David Sullivan with the lead pipe, beating the Hammers over the head with disappointment after disappointment?
In the aftermath of Friday’s 2-1 defeat at Leeds, their seventh loss in nine Premier League matches, talkSPORT pundits Martin Keown and Martin O’Neill clashed as they attempted to find the man responsible for the rapid decline of a club who may yet go from Conference League champions to the Championship in the space of three head-spinning years.
Keown feels that Nuno has simply failed to bring about the desired improvements after replacing Graham Potter. O’Neill, though, argues that there is only so much one can really expect from the new head coach considering his current defensive options.
If anything summed up West Ham’s malaise this season, it was the sight of Ollie Scarles switching off at the back post as Leeds stormed into a third-minute lead at Elland Road. A full-back failing to do the basics, but also clearly struggling in a position that is not his own.
Ollie Scarles error sparks debate over Nuno’s team selection at West Ham United
Scarles was hauled off by Nuno at half-time against Brentford four days earlier.
Yet, having seemingly learned little from an experiment which blew up in his face, the 51-year-old Portuguese started the Hammers’ reigning Young Player of the Year out of position once again in South Yorkshire.
“To be fair to the kid, he’s probably used to looking over his left-shoulder, being at left-back!” former Wimbledon striker Robbie Earle told NBC Sports after seeing the 19-year-old beaten at the far stick by Noah Okafor seconds before Brenden Aaronson pounced on an Alphonse Areola parry.
“Where does the fault lie, between the managers and the players? I kind of say both. It doesn’t look to me as if Nuno has created the environment that is required.
“[But also] are we now looking at some of these players?”
Leeds’ opening goal perfectly distilled the ongoing debate. Individual mistakes, yes, but made by players who have been forced, square peg-like, into holes they do not fit.
Robbie Mustoe and Troy Deeney hit out at Scarles’ defending
Middlesbrough legend Robbie Mustoe and former Watford captain Troy Deeney, though, were less sympathetic to young Scarles, even following a game in which he was forced off 25 minutes in due to a dislocated shoulder.
“He’s making some odd decisions with full-backs and stuff,” Mustoe argues. “Scarles, for the first goal, he gets beaten at the back post. That is just not Premier League-level. That is not Premier League-level, to be that passive.
“Look at the awful defending from the right back. Scarles is it? The young boy, it’s awful,” Deeney told the Football Exchange podcast, albeit while showing some pity for a young player thrown into a team seemingly devoid of leaders.
“The problem is, when you’re in this moment and you want to put young players in and blood them, it’s very difficult because you need a framework for them to build off.
“And at this moment in time, who are the people in and around him? Who are the people in and around this young man that are going to like calm him down?”
Carlton Cole explains Freddie Potts situation after Leeds loss
Former West Ham striker Carlton Cole had a similar perspective when discussing the ongoing absence of Freddie Potts from the starting XI.
Cole feels that Nuno is looking to ‘protect’ the West Ham starlet from an atmosphere that would choke even the most experienced of campaigners.
“Nuno is trying to work miracles,” Cole, who saw Potts blossom at Portsmouth last term in his role as the club’s Loans and Pathways Manager. “It looks as if he is trying to find a formula that he might have dreamed of that looks credible in his eyes.
“But, from the outside looking in, people are confused with the line-up.
“I think there’s a little bit of protection for Potts. He’s a young player, he’s just come back from loan. We have to try and protect our future as well, because he could be a player for future generations to come.
“And I think it’s a cauldron, to go to Elland Road and get a result.”
