Nuno Espirito Santo’s London Stadium debut in charge of West Ham United ended with an insipid, all-too-familiar defeat by Brentford back in October.
A result which, coupled with another loss at Leeds a few days later, confirmed the Hammers’ worst start to a league season in 52 years.
West Ham United had also conceded a staggering eight set-piece goals before hosting Brentford on matchday eight. In the build-up to an eventual 2-0 loss which flattered the hosts far more than their vastly-superior visitors, Nuno admitted that he was ‘really concerned’ with the Hammers’ dismal set-piece record.
What changes are you making to this team? Just don’t think Wilson should start 😬
He was not the only one.
West Ham United had an abysmal set-piece record at the start of the Nuno Espirito Santo era
As it transpired, it was nothing short of a miracle that Brentford did not add to West Ham’s most unwanted of tallies. Goals from Igor Thiago and Mathias Jensen came from open play, but a key feature of that Monday night fixture was how many times Brentford exposed an alarming lack of organisation and physicality inside the West Ham penalty area from dead-ball situations.
“A disappointing evening,” Nuno Espirito Santo said at full-time. “It was a disappointing performance. It was not good enough. “Brentford were aggressive, physical. Set-pieces, we couldn’t manage.”
Six months later, as the two London rivals prepare to lock horns again, the topic of set-pieces came up once more during Nuno’s pre-match press conference.
But while the head coach is far too much of a perfectionist to suggest that this is a problem solved, following nine set-piece concessions in the first nine games of a season with eight in the next 25 does represent a marked improvement.
Nuno seems so much more confident in the Hammers’ defence
Axel Disasi and Konstantinos Mavropanos has been a transformative partnership at centre-half. A massive improvement on the Max Kilman, Jean-Clair Todibo duopoly which began the campaign in such nightmarish fashion.
Nuno, meanwhile, has proven himself at Wolves and Nottingham Forest to be a superb organiser of a backline. It was those rock solid foundations which took Wolves and Forest into Europe on his watch.
How would you explain West Ham’s IMPROVED set-piece record?
Nuno was 'really concerned' at one point…
When the head coach spoke again about Brentford’s set-piece threat, the change in his attitude compared to six months ago is notable. From ‘really concerned’ to, well, much more confident in his team’s ability to deal with that Achilles heel.
“Brentford are really good at that aspect of the game but we can see the importance of set-pieces, the amount of goals that are scored [from them],” Nuno said on Thursday. “But we are positive and confident that we can handle [these] situations.
“Brentford, it is not only the set-pieces. They create a lot of problems. We know ourselves, Brentford knows us, and we know Brentford. We could take some examples out of the way Brentford do things; they are very intense, very physical, it’s a reference for us.”
“We have to perform well, prepare ourselves, and the boys are doing it. We have to compete against a tough team, that’s our priority, always trying to maintain our levels of performance.”
All of this will feel rather moot if Igor Thiago converts a Mikkel Damsgaard corner ten minutes into Saturday’s 3pm kick off at the Gtech Community Stadium. But while the atmosphere at West Ham has changed so much for the better, so too has their ability to stand up to the division’s most physically-imposing opposition.
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox
