“Not good enough.” “Until the end, Brentford were the better team.” “We have to improve so many things.”
Not a vox appearing outside the London Stadium, but comments from West Ham United’s own manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, after the defeat to Brentford on Monday evening.
Here are our Scout notes from the game.
2-0 FLATTERS WESTHAM
It is difficult to describe how abysmally poor West Ham’s performance was against a Brentford team who had lost all three of their away games in the league before Monday evening.
The Bees should have been in front earlier Igor Thiago (£6.1m) opened the scoring just before half-time, and out of sight long before that Mathias Jensen (£4.9 million) sealed the victory in second-half stoppage time.
The raw numbers from the match indeed tell part of the story, with the visitors leading 20-2 on shots into the penalty area:
Thiago and Kevin Damage (£7.0m) both hit the woodwork with sitters, with the first having a total of six shots. Dango Ouattara (£6.0m) also nodded a free header wide of goal, with Brentford wreaking havoc with their direct, physical approach, registering eight set-piece attempts.
Full-back Michael Kayode (£4.5m) recorded an impressive seven chances created (including one from his trademark long throws), helping him to maximum bonus points.
After showing stubborn behavior in Nuno’s first two games in charge, this was a chaotic defensive performance in which any type of attack (through ball, cross, long ball, corner, long throw) seemed to cause a headache.
NUNO’S CURIOUS TEAM SELECTION
Nuno’s team selection may partly be to blame for this.
It started out of nowhere Ollie Scarles (£4.4 million), divine line (£4.3 million) and Kyle Walker Peters (£4.4m), with El Hadji Malick Diouf (£4.4 million), Konstantinos Mavropanos (£4.4 million) and Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.3 million) falls into the bank.
Perhaps the international minutes played a role here, with Nuno opting for defenders he had on the training pitch during the recent break:
Even further forward, Andy Irving (£4.4m) was handed his first ever London Stadium start, with Nuno opting for a strikerless formation with Lucas Paqueta (£5.9 million) operating as a false nine.
If this was Nuno wanting a good look at some of his players, he would have decided he had seen enough at half-time. Walker-Peters and Scarles were next, with all three players he had removed from the squad. Irving left after an hour.
“We were vulnerable at the back. We wanted to get back to a consistent shape defensively so that we can come forward in the second half.” – Nuno Espirito Santo on his half-time substitutions
It was enough to put you off investing in West Ham players despite good performances in Gameweeks 9 and 11.
No surprise there Jarrod Bowen (£7.8m) carried the small threat the Hammers had, shooting wide from a narrow angle early on and forcing Kevin Kelleher (£4.5m) in his only save of the evening after the break. Even he couldn’t save the Hammers, as he has done so many times before.
THIAGO ON GOAL AGAIN
With five goals to his name, Thiago is joint second in the goalscoring chart of the attackers and only behind Erling Haaland (£14.6 million).
He is also tied for third among forwards (18).
A really good start to the season, but the tougher tests ahead are likely to mean interest in him will wane.
That said, given how much Liverpool struggled with direct play in Gameweek 8, you wouldn’t put it past Thiago to score against the Reds this weekend.
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