One point in four games and strange selections mean the Hammers are staring at the Championship unless something changes soon
Nuno Espírito Santo has made a dreadful start at West Ham. He has taken one point from four games in charge and is already in danger of losing mutinous supporters after naming ludicrous starting XIs during his shambolic defeats by Brentford and Leeds.
Do it once and it could have been passed off as an experiment. No such luck here, though. There was bewilderment when Nuno played a right-back on the left, a left-back on the right, the ponderous duo of Tomas Soucek and Andrew Irving in midfield and Lucas Paquetá as a false 9 against Brentford. Nobody was surprised when West Ham, who were fortunate it finished 2-0, produced one of the worst performances by a Premier League team.
Nuno, however, appeared to learn nothing from the experience. After making three substitutions and switching to a back five at half-time against Brentford, the expectation was that he had accepted his initial system was an error. Everyone could have moved on. Instead Nuno stuck with the inverted full-backs, the Soucek-Irving axis and an attack led by Paquetá for last weekend’s trip to Leeds, who took one look at their feeble opponents, realised there was nothing to fear and swept into a 2-0 lead inside 15 minutes.
