One reason to keep the faith at West Ham United, despite their dismal start to the Premier League season, is Nuno Espirito Santo’s excellent track record at Wolves and Nottingham Forest.
While taking both clubs into Europe, Nuno coaxed career-best performances out of Raul Jimenez, Adama Traore, Ruben Neves, Morgan Gibbs-White, Anthony Elanga, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Chris Wood.
And though the new West Ham United boss is yet to yield the same sort of impact in his new home – the Hammers have just one point and two goals from his four matches in charge – Nuno Espirito Santo is determined to ensure that so-called ‘new manager bounce’ arrived eventually, albeit somewhat delayed.
Nuno has been tipped to transform Crysencio Summerville into a ‘world-class’ wideman. Midfield dynamo Mateus Fernandes is a ‘special’ talent, too, even if his most effective position remains a bit of a mystery.
Nuno has a plan to revitalise Lucas Paqueta as well.
Sunday’s clash with Newcastle would certainly be a good time for Summerville, Fernandes, Paqueta and co to start performing somewhere close to their best, as the hosts look to avoid extending their worst start to a top-flight campaign in 52 years.
Nuno Espirito Santo enthused by a ‘good week’ in West Ham United training
Speaking during his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, the 51-year-old sees plenty of reasons to remain optimistic.
Nuno looked a beaten man at Elland Road. The atmosphere and the performances he has witnessed at Rush Green since that 2-1 loss in South Yorkshire, though, has Graham Potter’s successor heading into another matchday in a much more positive mood.
“It was a long week but, at the same time, a good week,” Nuno says. “We had a chance to work. The players have committed themselves to the work, so we expect to see improvement.
“[Our poor form] has to be addressed. We have to be aware of the situation that we are in and react to it.
We are working really hard. We are creating a dynamic at the training ground, of small groups. We can improve physically, technically and also in individual aspects.
“We must improve the players individually. Many of them, and they know [this], are performing under their real quality.”
West Ham will be without Niclas Fullkrug again. Ollie Scarles is also unavailable due to a dislocated shoulder, while the game comes too soon for centre-back Konstantinos Mavropanos.
Those still at his disposal, though, appear determined to right the wrongs of recent months.
“This is what we are doing. We are [working] really, really hard on individual development,” Nuno adds. “My priority is to improve these players, our squad. Start with individuals, then small squads, lines, defence, midfield, and attack.
“Everyone needs to improve.”
Alan Pardew has advice for Nuno as Newcastle clash looms
That cautious optimism will be music to the ears of one of Nuno’s Upton Park predecessors.
Alan Pardew has warned Nuno against letting negative energy trap his Hammers in a permanent orbit circling the plughole.
“They didn’t get the new manager bounce, which I think they were expecting,” Pardew tells talkSPORT.
“So there is a real problem over there. The fans are starting to kind of get unconnected with the board. I think the manager they are happy with. They are more looking at the board and the playing staff and saying, ‘Well, what are we going to do?’
“That is where they are right now.
“When you go into a football club and you don’t start well, you start kind of looking at the problems rather than looking at the solutions, When I think back to my time at West Brom, it was very, very difficult. I couldn’t see a route out,” adds Pardew, who won only three of 21 matches in charge of the Baggies during their relegation in 2018.
“And I hope Nuno doesn’t get stuck in that, because that is a very negative cycle. There are obviously issues. That is why they are down at the bottom of the division.”
