As Alexander Isak demonstrated, the Premier League’s record signing finally opening his account as West Ham United trudged to a 2-0 home defeat by Liverpool, the finest finishers only need a glimpse of goal.
Of all the 22 players to start during Sunday’s early afternoon kick-off at the London Stadium, none touched the ball fewer times than Liverpool’s £125 million centre-forward.
Yet, it was with one of those mere 13 touches that Alexander Isak found a way past an inspired Alphonse Areola in the West Ham United goal. A sublime first-time finish, and a long-awaited first Premier League goal for Arne Slot’s champions.
Unfortunately for Callum Wilson, Isak’s opposite number would not benefit from the same sort of service. As Cody Gakpo assisted the former Newcastle talisman with a well-placed cross, a stark absence of quality at the other end restricted Isak’s old St James’ Park teammate to a spectator’s role.
Wilson made Premier League history when scoring a brace at Bournemouth eight days earlier. This was the first time in the competition that a player had scored twice in a first-half without completing a single pass.
Against Liverpool, Wilson would only complete seven passes, while recording one shot and just 15 touches.
West Ham needed the 33-year-old to do something no one had ever done before in recorded history on the South Coast. Nuno Espirito Santo could not rely on such ruthless goal-poaching this time, however.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s tactics made Callum Wilson’s job impossible at West Ham United
Wilson ‘magnificently’ gobbled up two half-chances at the Vitality Stadium, albeit aided in his first by some questionable Djordje Petrovic goalkeeping.
He wasn’t even afforded a fraction of an opportunity this time around. Isolated, completely starved of service, and perhaps the biggest victim of Nuno’s ultra-pragmatic, bizarrely-passive tactics.
One would presume, given that Liverpool travelled to East London in their worst form in 71 years and having conceded seven goals against Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven, West Ham would, as they say, ‘have a go’.
That they did not record a single shot on target, and supplied their centre-forward with only 15 touches of the ball, is a rather damning reflection of the blueprint which gifted Liverpool the easiest possible route out of their recent crisis.
“The problem with [Jarrod] Bowen is he’s got absolutely nothing ahead of him,” former Hammers goalkeeper and Sky Sports pundit Rob Green said when watching the captain run desperately down another cul-de-sac.
“It’s almost like [West Ham are playing with] a flat back-six!
“It has felt like a training game from the get-go. When you go 1-0 down and Liverpool are getting more and more confident, you’ve got to raise the crowd, raise yourselves. You’ve got to do something!”
Jarrod Bowen is enduring his longest Premier League goal drought since 2023/14
Speaking of Bowen, he has now scored only once in the Nuno era. In fact, his last goal came seven games ago.
That would not be the case had his effort not crashed back off the post in the recent 3-1 victory over Newcastle, of course. But here, like against Burnley and Bournemouth, Bowen barely even had a sniff of the opposition’s net until a late snapshot whizzed just wide heading into stoppage-time.
A goal drought can happen to the best of forwards. But when said forward is not even getting a chance to end his barren run, that becomes a much bigger concern.
To think, Nuno made such a point about the fact West Ham need to get Bowen in the positions he’s most effective. His recent tactical approach though, is doing precisely the opposite.
“Jarrod is not a player who drops and drives the ball [forward]. We must get the ball there [in his favoured positions in attack], so he can do it,” Nuno said five weeks ago.
“Where can Jarrod have an impact on the game?”
The answer Nuno’s was thinking about, presumably, did not involve Bowen being pinned back in his own half, forced to help out Aaron Wan-Bissaka in the defensive third rather than fire those trademark curling shots at goal.
Fifteen touches for Callum Wilson. No goals in seven Premier League matches for Jarrod Bowen. No assists in eight, by the way, for El Hadji Malick Diouf.
Forget the results, the league standings or his points-per-game return. These statistics are just as damaging for Nuno Espirito Santo.
The last time Bowen went seven games without a goal, meanwhile, he ended that streak with a thrilling hat-trick against Brentford in early-2024. Given that West Ham have to travel to Old Trafford without their key creator – Lucas Paqueta was sent off in ‘ridiculous’ circumstances – the odds of Bowen repeating that feat have just grown even longer.
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