West Ham: Areola, Diouf, Scarles, Kilman, Todibo, Wan-Bissaka, Soucek, Irving, Summerville, Bowen (C), Paqueta
Subs: Hermansen, Walker-Peters, Igor, Wilson, Fernandes, Rodriguez, Magassa, Potts, Marshall
Leeds: Perri, Bogle, Gudmundsson, Rodon, Bijol, Ampadu, Longstaff, Tanaka, Aaronson, Okafor, Calvert-Lewin
Subs: Darlow, Justin, Struijk, Gruev, Stach, Harrison, James, Nmecha, Piroe
Despite only having three matches in charge for the Hammers, Nuno Espírito Santo has already seen enough in the squad he’s been given and is aiming to secure three players in the upcoming January window.
However, not only are West Ham struggling financially, but history will also tell fans and managers that the club don’t tend to do business in the winter.
Albee the past, NES has determined that he is in dire need of a striker from January onwards, in which he’s identified both Joshua Zirkzee and Ivan Toney.
Both individuals are currently looking for game time to help bolster their chances of being selected for the World Cup 2026 campaign.
However, both deals have their drawbacks. Ivan Toney now finds himself as a 29-year-old in Saudi Arabia with no club willing to pay a significant fee for the Englishman, as come next summer, he’d be 30. But, if a cheap fee could be agreed, then the deal could certainly transpire into something.
On the other hand, Joshua Zirkzee offers being a younger striker who’s proved himself in other leagues, but it has not worked out for him at Manchester United. The primary problem with the Dutchman isn’t himself but rather the club.
History informs us on numerous occasions that doing deals with the Devils doesn’t always turn up easy, with many deals nearly being agreed between us and them, but all primarily falling through at the final hurdle, with minimal picky details left blowing up the deal and leaving both worse for wear.
West Ham United's overwhelmingly disappointing result on Monday night has brought much attention to many players and individuals, but if you had to single a soul out from that game, many would look towards the defence and more specifically, Max Kilman.
Kilman had a poor game against Brentford, whilst fans heckled and boo’d others, the stats don’t lie, and as a central defender in the Premier League to play a fixture which consisted of around 100 minutes and to not attempt a tackle all game is a cause for concern.
His zero tackles might’ve seen fans pose the question… was he not focused for the game?
Garry O’Neil was one of three presenters on MNF; however, one section that caught the attention was the segment on the Ex Wolves Captain, where he commented:
“At Wolves, we did a lot of work with him, on not switching off the engine. We used to speak to him, because he’s big & he looks for a rest a lot. ”
“He’ll be involved in the game and if he gets a moment to switch the engine off, he’ll take it.”
O’Neil’s comments on Kilman have sent fans into raptures, discussing now how bad Kilman appears to be pound for pound, seeing as the club paid £40,000,000 for the 27-year-old.
The Hammers are in dire need of Nuno to ‘drill’ it into Kilman, which O’Neil explained would take time to achieve, but the Hammers, with Mavropanos out, have only got Kilman to play and with an upcoming fixture tomorrow, West Ham currently cannot afford time with wins needing to be around the corner.
The Leeds game is se-… oh sorry, did I get distracted there?
After last nights game against Brentford I can see big money problems ahead because if we go down this will lead to a reduction in Sky money plus there will be a big drop in the amount of "customers" and I cant see the attendance figures picking up for a few seasons we will lose a lot of our players leaving, because they think that they are to good to play in the champions league. This is when you will see Brady and Sullivan leave, this will be seen as a big feather in the hat of many supporters but there no mugs, they know they have stripped the club to the bone, you might see a few hard core supporters come back. But the overseas supporters will go to elsewhere, and you will find the Club shop will suffer. You can see Sullivan saying he has done his best but in reality there is nothing in the cupboard because he has bled the club dry and with his bad managerial decisions he has finished us off
After one of the most woeful performances that most have ever seen, Nuno Espirito Santo wasn't afraid to criticise the performance and understands why the fans are ‘concerned’.
His opening comments said: “difficult evening, and it’s going to be much harder. Nobody’s going to sleep today. And rightly so. It was not good enough… Was not good enough.”
Upon being asked about the substitutions he made, “Some of them not so good today, but it’s part of the challenge ahead.”
And despite the Leeds game being in such proximity, Nuno claimed “the good thing is it’s coming soon” and that “We have to show another face if you want of ourselves. We must improve so many things.”
It's obvious that the Hammers know they need to improve; the London Stadium managed to be more soulless than ever before, and over 20,000 season ticket holders would boycott the game.
Overlooking the boycott and Nuno’s comments, the pair of the central defenders on the night summarised why we’re in the situation we find ourselves… between £70-£80m for the pair, in which a total of three tackles were made between them… Kilman off, which would make a total of zero across the 90’.
Mavropanos, who’s been the best of a bad bunch in recent times, ended his cameo on a stretcher, which has subsequently left us with Brighton loanee, Igor Julio, as the only other senior defender we have.
The first half performance saw Walker-Peters and Scarles on opposite sides in comparison to their usual positions, which is something that the Hammers will have to succumb to in the near future, seeing as once AFCON comes around, Malick Diouf and Wan-Bissaka will be away, and no other options will be available.
Leeds away in now just three days time and there’s the overwhelming feeling of the inevitable… or is it just the persistent pessimistic mindset that Hammers fans have accumulated across the two years?
defeat. Was the closing caption West Ham used to describe the 2-0 loss to Brentford.
A fixture in which felt like a ‘six-pointer’ already and one in which the lineup summarised the entirety of the match, clueless, toothless and subsequently leading to the opposition being ruthless.
The first six minutes saw the Hammers fans gleam in excitement to see dreamy football laid upon their eyes, but the remaining 84 brought disappointment, lack of ambition, clueless in all thirds of the pitch, bar the opportunistic crosses which persistently felt bound to reach a Brentford defender.
The idea to play Scarles on the right and Walker-Peters on the left made us susceptible to everything that Brentford threw at us, and after 14 shots and 7 corners in the first half, The Bees scored two, only one of which would count due to the power shortage AWS suffered and the kindness of the VAR saw fans retain minimal hope.
Dismal appearances from Max Killjoy, Scarles, Paqueta, Andy Ain’t-Servin’ & too many more, the starting squad was a complete and total disaster, one in which Nuno has to take entire fault for.
The atmosphere for the Boycott night sounded like a summer sky with no clouds and the real cause of noise was formed through the bellowing DJ along with a pitiful light show to show a minimal amount of remorse for the 90 minutes fans had to endure.
The only element of conversation regarding finishing for the 90 seeing as West Ham only achieved one shot on target, was that the Hammers well and truly might be finishing bottom three.
The feeling of dismay had already reached an all time high but the sharp dagger of Brentford’s rifled strike in added time to double their lead enhanced broken hearts and boo’s ringed round the bowl whilst fans poured out.
The everlasting amount of days continue onwards and will now further as it’s been 235 days since West Ham last won a home fixture.
An ambitious set of fans would look forward to Friday’s game against Leeds, but considering what the current form and situation is, it’s ultimately challenging to imagine what could happen in just 4 days time.
defeat. - LN
West Ham: Areola, Walker Peters, Todibo, Kilman, Scarles, Irving, Fernandes, Paqueta, Soucek, Summerville, Bowen
Subs: Hermansen, Wilson, Diouf, Mavropanos, Rodriguez, Magassa, Wan Bissaka, Potts, Marshall
Brentford: Kelleher; Kayode, Collins, Van den Berg, Ajer; Henderson, Yarmoliuk, Damsgaard; Ouattara, Thiago, Schade.
Subs: Valdimarsson, Henry, Pinnock, Jensen, Nelson, Carvalho, Onyeka, Lewis-Potter, Janelt.
Nuno Espirito Santo is set to take place in charge of his first home West Ham fixture on Monday, the 20th October, in what is set to be a boycott against Brentford. This inevitable boycott has been suspected to happen for a very long time, and it’s rather unfortunate timing for Nuno, seeing as he needs all the support that he can currently get.
However, once he was asked about the boycott, he said: "I hope all our fans could join us and help us facing Brentford.."
"We as a group we as a squad and group we ignore try to ignore focus on the tasks..."
The fixture against Brentford is already appearing as a ‘six-pointer’. The Bees currently sit 16th in the league with 7 points, in comparison to the Hammers, who currently sit 19th with 4 points.
A victory for West Ham would only see Nuno’s side go to 18th, but we would be on the same points as Brentford themselves, only not above them due to the tragic goal difference that we’ve accumulated so far throughout the season, conceding 16 goals in this campaign already.
As well as both sides being rather close in the Premier League table, both are currently on similar levels of form, as the pair have one win in the last five.
Brentford: 1 Win - 2 Draw - 3 Losses | West Ham: 1 Win - 1 Draw - 3 Losses
Overlooking the form that both teams have shown, injury news provides concerns for both sides as Keith Andrew’s side is doubtful of three players, those of whom are Aaron Hickey, Gustavo Gomes and Antoni Milambo.
Antoni Milambo suffered a more serious injury, that being an ACL, during the international break.
Similar to Brentford, just not as unfortunate, West Ham also suffered an injury during the international break which has subsequently led to Nicholas Fullkrug being out for an unknown period of time.
As well as the Kraut not being available, the likes of George Earthy and Jean-Clair Todibo also will not participate against the Bees, with Earthy unfortunately accumulating a further setback in training and Todibo still not in the tip-top condition he’s required to be in.
Yet in light of the injuries, Tomas Soucek for West Ham is available for the first time under Nuno, after his three-game suspension has concluded.
West Ham’s record against Brentford previously is a cause for concern, as it seems the West London side have slowly become our bogey team across the last five seasons as the Hammers have only beaten Brentford once in the Premier League, and that was a 4-2 victory at home on February 26th 2024, which saw Jarred score his hat-trick.
Brentford, on the other hand, have won 6 against West Ham in the Premier League, but if this season is anything to go by, history won’t mean anything, considering West Ham have already lost their previous ‘winning’ records against Arsenal, Spurs and Crystal Palace this season, so all is to play for come Monday night.
It is expected to be a wet, gloomy, miserable night under the floodlights as the Hammers will hunt for their second win of the campaign, whilst also looking to achieve their first points against a London side, in which we’ve failed three times already.
Let’s hope that our fortune isn’t hiding come tomorrow night.
I bet Nuno is pleased he's out of there ,what a shit hole of a club ,not saying they should have not sacked Post but that owner??? ,he makes Sullivan look like St Peter
Over the last season, it's been discussed amongst Hammers fans which is more of an underlying issue, whether it is the defence that needs more work than the attack. Or is it Vice-Verca?
The Hammers have conceded over 16 goals in the space of just 7 matches, totalling an average of 2.28 goals per game. To compare it to Sheffield United, who currently hold the worst record with 104 Goals conceded in a Premier League season, they averaged 2.73 goals per game.
In addition to the damning goals conceded stat, the Hammers have only shipped in a total of 6 Premier League goals this season, putting us just one above last placed Wolves [5]
Anyway, let’s not get bogged down with who put us in this position and how we so dreadfully ended up here.
Nuno’s culture at the club so far has been to get invested in everything the club participates in, making himself liked off the pitch, but on the pitch, it is always a more difficult task.
But, most recently, he’s exclaimed what the biggest ongoing issue is regarding the defence and the attack, putting the debate to bed.
“The team’s offence is not our priority at this time.”
“It’s no use increasing the number of goals scored if we do not radically reduce the goals conceded. We have a serious problem in dead-ball situations. The team concedes many goals and loses many first contacts.”
His play style goes hand in hand with his comments, and Nuno’s men can only hope to improve under new management, as well as in the series of upcoming games.
The Hammers are set to face Brentford at home on Monday Night’s Boycott, Leeds away, followed by two home fixtures against Newcastle and Burnley.
The real question lies within Nuno’s comments and asks the question, We’ve identified the problem, now what are we going to do to rectify it?
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