Optimism Meets Bewilderment: Nuno’s Questionable Start
Nuno’s appointment brought a sense of optimism and change; something that we’d needed so desperately. Yet just a few games into his reign, his squad selection and tactics have left fans baffled. I still believe that Nuno was the best option to get us out of trouble, but there are certainly parts of his game that to date, I cannot understand. My hope is that we are witnessing a tactical genius at work, and such a genius, mere mortals like myself are unable to see what on Earth he’s doing.
Midfield Mystification: Disregard for Investment
The first area that Nuno has surprised us in is his approach to team selection. Playing devil’s advocate, we know that we don’t have reinforcements coming before January, so perhaps Nuno’s approach is to explore every option and find out which players could have a place in his plans. That said, it’s been clear to anybody that’s watched a West Ham game that our midfield has not been dynamic enough for a long time. We brought Magassa and Fernandes in to solve that problem, albeit late in the window. The next step was to integrate them into the team and give them game time. But to our horror, Nuno has come in and looked for solutions in other areas. This disregard of the investment we made in a struggling midfield has certainly riled fans up, choosing to use a pairing of Soucek and Irving. Worse yet, Nuno chose to start them again, despite an initial performance that highlighted the exact reasons that we needed to bring fresh blood into our midfield.
The Bench and the Backline: Confusing Personnel Choices
Alongside the unexpected midfield duo, Scarles and Marshall are another two names we’ve seen getting gametime, suggesting that he’s keen to put a range of players to the test and see if they could have the potential to fit into his plans. We’ve also seen players not included that we’d expected to see more of, including Callum Wilson. Sat in a position where we desperately need goals, I certainly didn’t expect us to not utilise a proven Premier League goalscorer. We have seen Wilson make appearances, but this felt as though it was a decision which came when Nuno’s hand was forced, coming on only once it was clear we were going to lose, at the same time as Scarles became injured. Alongside squad selection, one of the most unexpected twists has been the positions that Nuno has played people in. Starting Scarles at right back rang immediate alarm bells, and unfortunately this was a gamble that didn’t pay off and ended in injury disaster. An inverted fullback was always going to be an interesting decision, because as we saw, Scarles struggled to defend on that side. He was getting beaten by players, as well as not being given a fair opportunity to show what he can do, given that he was played out of position.
Formation Debate and The Urgency of Change
Of course, with position comes formation. Nuno has favoured playing a back three or five, with the perfect example being putting Paqueta up top instead of using Callum Wilson. Personally, I prefer to play with four at the back because realistically, our strengths don’t lie in defence. I understand that having more defenders should help to protect shots on goal, but when this isn’t working and we’re also not dynamic enough going forward, I feel there is very little to lose. In my opinion, we have to make a change here to give ourselves a chance of finding some creativity in midfield. There is certainly a huge question mark over how quickly Nuno will make changes when things don’t work, and his persistence with Soucek and Irving certainly frightened even the most resilient fans. Perhaps Nuno is trying to check whether he can get more out of the players than Potter could, or maybe he wants to make sure he’s not missing out on any players’ talent before dropping them as quickly as he did with JWP – only time will tell. There’s one thing for sure, with a relegation battle looming, time is of the essence for Nuno to find his best starting XI. By doing this, we can get to a point where we make small, tactical changes, but this can only come by being brutal in switching things up that aren’t working.
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