“Not good enough”. “Till the end, Brentford were the better team”. “We must improve so many things.”
Not vox pops from outside the London Stadium but comments from West Ham United’s own manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, following a defeat to Brentford on Monday night.
Here are our Scout Notes from the game.
2-0 FLATTERS WEST HAM
It is difficult to describe just how appallingly bad the West Ham performance was against a Brentford side that had lost all three away league matches before Monday night.
The Bees should have been in front before Igor Thiago (£6.1m) opened the scoring just before half-time, and out of sight long before Mathias Jensen (£4.9m) sealed the victory in second-half stoppage time.
The raw numbers from the game indeed tell part of the story, with the visitors 20-2 ahead on shots in the box:
Thiago and Kevin Schade (£7.0m) both hit the woodwork with sitters, with the former having six shots in all. Dango Ouattara (£6.0m) also nodded a free header off target, with Brentford causing havoc with their direct, physical approach and registering eight set-piece attempts.
Full-back Michael Kayode (£4.5m) registered a whopping seven chances created (including one from his trademark long throws), which helped him to maximum bonus points.
Having put up stubborn displays in Nuno’s first two matches in charge, this was a chaotic defensive performance in which every type of attack (through-ball, cross, long ball, corner, long throw) looked like it was causing headaches.
NUNO’S CURIOUS TEAM SELECTION
Nuno’s team selection may be partly to blame.
Out of nowhere came starts for Ollie Scarles (£4.4m), Jean-Clair Todibo (£4.3m) and Kyle Walker-Peters (£4.4m), with El Hadji Malick Diouf (£4.4m), Konstantinos Mavropanos (£4.4m) and Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.3m) dropping to the bench.
Perhaps the international minutes were a factor here, with Nuno opting for defenders he had around the training ground over the recent break:
Even further forward, Andy Irving (£4.4m) was handed his first ever London Stadium start, while Nuno opted for a striker-less set-up with Lucas Paqueta (£5.9m) operating as a false nine.
If this was Nuno wanting a good look at some of his squad players, he had decided he’d seen enough at half-time. Off came Walker-Peters and Scarles, with all three players he’d rotated out of the side brought on. Irving departed after an hour.
“We were being fragile in the back. We wanted to get back again a shape consistent defensively so we can move forward in in the second half.” – Nuno Espirito Santo on his half-time changes
It was enough to put you off investment in West Ham players despite good fixtures in Gameweeks 9 and 11.
No surprise that Jarrod Bowen (£7.8m) carried what little threat the Hammers had, firing wide from a narrow angle early on and forcing Caoimhin Kelleher (£4.5m) into his only save of the night after half-time. Even he couldn’t rescue the Hammers as he has done on so many occasions before.
THIAGO ON TARGET AGAIN
With five goals to his name, Thiago is joint-second in the forwards’ goal table and behind only Erling Haaland (£14.6m).
He’s joint-third among strikers for shots (18), too.
A really good start to the season, then, but the stiffer tests ahead likely mean interest in him will be muted.
Having said that, given how much Liverpool struggled against direct play in Gameweek 8, you wouldn’t put it past Thiago to score against the Reds this weekend.
