It was not long before Nuno Espirito Santo would find another Premier League job: only 18 days separated his Nottingham Forest Dismissal and West Ham United.
In fact, it was the shock of the Hammers Gameweek 3 victory on the city that accelerated Nuno’s farewell. Graham Potter did not last much longer, seeing generally poor form evolves into a strange face -falling viral trend that dominated social media for a few days.
Anyway, the enthusiastic Nuno has already taken the lead on his first West Ham competition, a 1-1 draw at Everton.
Let’s see what our earlier knowledge and Monday evening observations can mean for Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers.
Sad Under Potter
At the beginning of January, Potter only achieved six victories from 25 times, victor in two of the 12 at home.
It was not all bad, because they won in Arsenal in February and beat the city of Ipswich on the last day to secure 14th place. But in reality, many of the last weeks were spent in the 17th.
In Football365’s League table of Potter’s term of officeWest Ham arranged as the last of all parties that were neither promoted or relegated.
Moreover, for a whole 2024/25 they were the second most attempts (583), shots on Target (186), great opportunities (103) and expected goals (XGC, 60.60) of all 17 survivors.
None of them had fewer shots on goal (140) in attack.
Nuno at Bos
In the meantime, Nuno Bos had about Champions League qualification.
Hired on time for Gameweek 18 of 2023/24, his first half season showed a lot of defensive promise. The difficult trees had the fourth best XGC (27.75) in that period.
This became the foundation until a beautiful 2024/25, where Forest collected 57 points of the first 30 games. They finished Gamweek 33 in a dizzying third place before they finally had no steam anymore and came in seventh place.
The Nuno team was based on a strong defense that liked to absorb in a deep line and then unleashed pace against attacks. Number two for limiting great opportunities (72), only Liverpool champions improved their 13 clean sheets.
Forest indeed remains the only team to prevent the Reds from scoring in a league match under Arne Slot.
In this respect it feels as if West Ham Potter replaces the opposite – not always a great idea.
Nevertheless, the above image of high and deep defense lines – taken from our piece ‘Moving Target’ on Ange Postecoglou – suggests that the hammers actually fit well with the direct, pragmatic management style of Nuno.
After all, this West Ham team is not good at building from the back and looks the brightest when they are in transition.
Defensive contribution points
There is apparent A connection between a team with a low possession numbers And are players who collect Defensive Contribution (Defcon) actions – clearings, blocks, interceptions and tackles.
When FPL announced this new point remuneration in mid -July, we discovered that Forest Duo Nikola Milenkovic (£ 5.4 million) and Murillo (£ 5.4 million) would have been the best two defenders of the game if it had been last season.
During the time of Nuno in Nottingham, the average possession was very low and West Ham’s was not much higher.
That can be good for Max Kilman (£ 4.4 million). He was the sixth best defender of last season for Defcon promotions (327) and had bad luck not to get hypothetical points-the Center-Back was a shortage of the threshold on various occasions.
Above: Forest and West Ham Defenders sorted by % of the games in which they reached the Defcon threshold in 2024/25
This time, partner Konstantinos Mavropanos (£ 4.4 million) corresponds to the two rewards of Kilman, but from fewer performances. It is worthwhile to keep an eye on how the duo is developing under new management.
Instructions from Monday evening
They started together in the Hill Dickinson Stadium, one night when Nuno spoke about not immediately major changes.
“Two training sessions, we try to keep it simple. This is not the time to make major changes. More important is that the team is compact and organized; this was the most important message.
“I think the players understand that we have to make things different, we must become a team that is more organized, not leave gaps.” -Nuno Espirito Santo, who speaks before the kick -off
That said, Nuno used the backline of four men he recently preferred. But his enchantment at Wolverhampton Wanderers used the wing-back system, one where he would sometimes return when Forest won a competition. So his favorite formation with this harvest of players still has to be determined.
As for the staff, the big exclusion of Monday was James Ward-Prowse (£ 5.8 million). The midfielder started each of the previous five in West Ham, but did not succeed in impressing Nuno when he briefly lent to the forest in 2024/25.
The head coach also preferred goalkeeper Alphonse Areola (£ 4.3 million) to Mads Hermansen (£ 4.5 million).
Pleasant to leave with a point, the hammers won the expected goals (XG) fighting with 1.17 to 0.73. But there will be unrest that they have again admitted from a set piece- Michael Keane‘s (£ 4.5 million) goal is already the eighth time that this has happened. And it could have been more, looking at the other opportunities of Everton.
The upcoming luminaires of West Ham
Match number two has again West Ham on the road, this time in London against Arsenal. Can they win at the Emirates for a third consecutive time?
After this, the international break of October Nuno gives the time to formulate a coherent plan. The four consecutive games look very attractive, versus Brentford, Leeds United, Newcastle United and Burnley.
That is why the next six of the hammers in the upper half of Our fixture tickerAlthough they slide down when expanding the sample size to 10.
FPL assets to consider
According to XG Delta figures, it must be noticeable that Bos is transferred en masse to attack.
They scored 58 times, but it should have only been 46.57, helped by the ruthlessness of Chris Wood (£ 7.5 million). Maybe he sees similarities Niclas Fullkrug (£ 5.7 million), which he started in advance against Everton.
West Ham’s undoubtedly Talisman is Jarrod Bowen (£ 7.7 million). He ended the last two campaigns on 193 and 182 FPL points, before he found one way or another to score three goals in the first six meetings of this bad side.
On the other wing, Crysencio Summerville (£ 5.5 million) is not only cheaper, but someone who wanted to sign Nuno for Bos in the summer.
He combined well with El Hadji Malick Diouf (£ 4.4 million) on Monday, because the attacking left back made the four assists of six. If clean sheets are added to his repertoire, Diouf can become very attractive. Not that he has the Defcon potential of Kilman and Mavropanos.
What talked about, Lucas -package (£ 5.9 million) is a fine midfielder who has twice brought Defcon points.
Remove Gameweek 7, and the West Ham of Nuno Espirito Santo can be worth some investments.
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