When Nuno Espirito Santo took over at West Ham United, the success had he enjoyed taking Nottingham Forest to a seventh-place Premier League finish provided plenty of reasons for optimism at the London Stadium.
This was actually the second time that Nuno Espirito Santo had seized the reins at a giant, perennially-underperforming club, giving them an almighty slap round the face, dunking an ice cold bucket of water on their heads, and leading a march towards European qualification.
See Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020 and Nottingham Forest in 2025.
At both clubs, West Ham United’s newly-appointed head coach had constructed his success upon the rock-solid foundations of an excellent defensive record.
But, considering that Raul Jimenez, Adama Traore, Pedro Neto, Morgan Gibbs-White, Chris Wood, Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi all played their best football on his watch, there was also an expectation that Nuno could get Crysencio Summerville performing at hitherto unseen levels, for example.
Gibbs-White, Wood, Elanga and Hudson-Odoi reached new heights as Forest went from relegation candidates to Champions League dark horses, eventually settling in a position that would give his current employers vertigo.
Yet, Sunday’s 3-1 victory over Newcastle – Nuno’s first at the fifth time of asking – felt like a belated coming-of-age moment. A statement victory. A breakthrough performance. Lucas Paqueta took Jarrod Bowen’s advice and ended a seven game scoreless streak. Summerville was as lively as he has been in a claret and blue shirt. And Fernandes, all probing and purpose, performed a very passing impression of Elliott Anderson in garibaldi red.
Yet, beyond the obvious improvements Nuno could make to West Ham both defensively and offensively, there is another, less obvious but no less important way they could benefit from his expertise.
Nuno Espirito Santo has West Ham United ranking as the Premier League’s second-best
With around a month remaining of the 2024/25 season, The Athletic ran a piece entitled ‘Why Nottingham Forest have had the fewest injuries in the Premier League this season’.
They noted that, from August to the end of March, there had been only 11 instances in which a Forest player was forced to miss a top-flight game. They had also lost the fewest number of days – 475 – through injury of any first division side.
Long-term absentees Danilo and Ibrahim Sangare accounted for much of that.
When you consider that Nuno often avoided rotating his starting XI – seven players started 32 or more matches – these numbers look even more impressive.
Luke Anthony, a clinical director of sports injury and performance centre GoPerform, put Forest’s impressive fitness record down, somewhat, to Nuno’s style of play. Forest were the least high-pressing team in the division last season, instead looking to defend deep and hit their opposition on the counter.
“Style of play is definitely very important,” Anthony said. “I’d use the example of Tottenham here. [Ange Postecoglou] Tottenham are the opposite of Forest, in terms of having an aggressive press, a high line and needing their central defenders to cover, often at high speed.
“They have a relatively small squad and are putting those demands on the same group of players all the time, repetitively playing the same players, which is a risk factor.
“When [Forest] are playing in a system that is less aggressive, press less when it comes to high-speed sprint, it does make a difference. It is a big factor in the number of injuries they are getting this season. The style of play will be helping Forest on that front.”
Nuno, though, also spoke about the importance of ‘data’ and the risks of overloading players.
“The data and how you load the players, it is a big issue,” Nuno explained. “We really take care of that. A lot of it is about prevention.”
Are West Ham benefitting like Nottingham Forest and Wolves?
It is early days at West Ham, of course. And it should also be pointed out that Nuno has taken charge of only half of their ten Premier League matches so far.
Yet, with Sky Sports highlighting that only Manchester United have suffered fewer injuries than West Ham in 2025/26, it is tempting to wonder if they are already feeling the benefits of one of Nuno’s more under-the-radar qualities.
Only Fulham and Man United have lost fewer days due to injury as well. While Ruben Amorim has been praised for shifting away from the breakneck, muscle-tweaking football of the Erik ten Hag era – his players clearly benefitting from a more controlled style – Nuno’s deep-lying, transitional football should in theory make for a scarcer treatment room.
Speaking ahead of that Newcastle clash, Nuno confirmed that Dinos Mavropanos and Niclas Fullkrug are making progress on their fitness concerns. That means Ollie Scarles [dislocated shoulder] is the only other unavailable player right now.
Further research showed that Nuno’s Wolves also had the lowest number of injuries in the 2018/19 season, a record they would continue into the following campaign [Planet Football].
So while West Ham have had some teething issues under Nuno so far – they sat far too deep and invited far too much pressure against Arsenal and Brentford – it is not only the results which should improve once the players get used to his methods.
“Having a shape and an organisation sometimes allows you to manage the games,” Nuno said during his time at Molineux when asked how he was managing to keep the likes of a 33-year-old Joao Moutinho on the team sheet every week.
Barry Watters, head of sports science at STATSports, told Sky Sports back in 2020 that Nuno’s willingness to embrace technological developments also played a major role.
“They are one of the biggest advocates of our system,” says Watters.
“They competed in Europe, in the Premier League itself, and in the cups while keeping their players fit. They had one of the lowest injury rates in the Premier League and it comes back to their understanding of the technology.
“By using it in games, you’re able to see, during and afterwards, exactly what each individual has done.
“You may have planned to do recovery session the next day, but after looking at the numbers you may decide it’s better to not train at all and instead focus on nutrition, sleep and maybe some non-weight bearing activity in the pool or something like that.”
Touch wood, of all the issues Nuno still is likely to run into fat West Ham, an injury crisis will not be one of them.
