New West Ham boss Nuno Espírito Santo is continuing to assess his best squad as the Hammers look to swerve a relegation dogfight.
Nuno raises eyebrows with West Ham team to play Brentford
Nuno attracted plenty of criticism after fielding what was a bizarre starting line-up last time out against Brentford.
The Portuguese seriously tinkered with his side, playing Olly Scarles and Kyle Walker-Peters on their opposite full-back sides and going with the largely static midfield duo of Tomas Soucek and Andy Irving.
Despite speculation that highly-rated young striker Callum Marshall – who scored for fun in West Ham’s youth setup and got into double figures on loan at Huddersfield last season – was due to start, Nuno instead went with Lucas Paqueta as a false nine.
By all accounts, his experiment was a disaster.
West Ham failed to lay a glove on Brentford throughout a dire 90 minutes where Keith Andrews’s side strolled to a 2-0 victory at the London Stadium, and the home side were lucky the scoreline wasn’t more embarrassing.
West Ham’s results in the Premier League so far
Sunderland 3-0 West Ham
West Ham 1-5 Chelsea
Nottingham Forest 0-3 West Ham
West Ham 0-3 Tottenham
West Ham 1-2 Crystal Palace
Everton 1-1 West Ham
Arsenal 2-0 West Ham
West Ham 0-2 Brentford
Tony Cottee slammed Nuno’s “awful” West Ham team selection to play Brentford, and he wasn’t the only one.
It will be interesting to see how the former Nottingham Forest boss sets his team up to play Leeds at Elland Road tonight, but there are a couple of players who definitely won’t be taking part.
Almost immediately after replacing Graham Potter, Nuno axed vice-captain James Ward-Prowse from the matchday squad, and the Englishman hasn’t featured since.
The 30-year-old, who is believed to be one free-kick goal away from matching David Beckham’s all-time Premier League record of 18, isn’t fancied at all by Nuno and reports suggest that Ward-Prowse is likely to leave West Ham in January.
Niclas Füllkrug, George Earthy and Konstantinos Mavropanos will also miss West Ham’s trip to Leeds through injury.
Meanwhile, as per insider ExWHUemployee, Nuno is unlikely to start summer signing Callum Wilson.
ExWHUemployee shares real reason why Nuno is snubbing Callum Wilson
Writing via his Patreon, Ex has responded to claims that West Ham are hesitant to play the Englishman due to a high appearance fee.
West Ham United manager Graham Potter and Callum Wilson celebrate after the match
The club signed Wilson on a free transfer from Newcastle, and reports at the time stated that the majority of his West Ham earnings would come through a ‘pay as you play’ agreement, where as much as 90 per cent of his salary could depend on appearances made.
This has led to murmurs that West Ham aren’t playing Wilson to save cash, but Ex has refuted this.
It is actually believed that Nuno simply doesn’t fancy Wilson at West Ham, making the need for a new centre-forward in January all the more pressing.
“West Ham have denied that Callum Wilson is not being picked because he has a very high appearance fee,” Ex reported.
“Many fans have been baffled at the England forward’s inability to get many minutes under the new gaffer and have speculated that it is more for financial reasons that this is happening rather than selection.
“We did our research and asked the question around. The notion was completely denied by the club, and we were told that the manager just doesn’t fancy him.
“All eyes will turn to tomorrow’s game to see what the team selection is then after a baffling one on Monday.”
Nuno definitely cannot play Paqueta up top again following a pretty lacklustre display against Brentford, where he lost possession a seismic 23 times.
The Brazilian is far better utilised playing in midfield where he can influence the game with his creativity, so Nuno will likely go with either Marshall or Jarrod Bowen as a makeshift striker.
This being said, West Ham legend Tony Gale is convinced that Nuno needs to play Wilson as the number nine.
“They are fighting to stay up between now and May, and it’s going to be really close all the way because of the poor start,” Gale told GiveMeSport.
“Nuno has got to pick a centre forward. Lucas Paqueta is not a centre forward, neither is Jarrod Bowen nor Crysencio Summerville. Nuno must pick a centre forward — Callum Wilson.”
