That Keith Andrews’ worked as a set-piece coach before taking the top job at Brentford means there is a pretty inevitable narrative building ahead of Monday’s clash with Nuno Espirito Santo’s West Ham United.
Sorting out West Ham United’s issues defending corners and free-kicks is something the new manager has talked about on numerous occasions three weeks since taking charge.
Nuno Espirito Santo is understandably really concerned’ with fixing a very well-publicised issue.
Call it an Achilles heel, a glass jaw, whatever. A record of eight set-piece goals conceded in just seven Premier League matches speaks for itself, even if the Hammers did restrict dead-ball specialists Arsenal to a rebounded opener and a contentious penalty last time out at the Emirates.
Even during his days alongside Nuno at Wolves, Max Kilman’s strengths have always been in possession. He excels when driving forward from the back, rather than clearing crosses. Konstantinos Mavropanos endured a nightmare week with Greece, meanwhile. Both Scotland and Denmark found the £17 million giant wanting during October’s World Cup qualifying double header.
So it goes without saying that Keith Andrews – who worked as Brentford’s set-piece coach before replacing the legendary Thomas Frank – will be looking to use corners, free-kicks and the trademark long throw of Michael Kayode to the visitors’ advantage on Monday night.
Keith Andrews on how Brentford can ‘hurt’ Nuno Espirito Santo’s West Ham United
For all of West Ham’s faults, they have tended to start games fairly solidly of late.
Catastrophic and largely self-imposed collapses against Sunderland and Tottenham came after goalless first-halves. They have also only conceded twice so far in the opening 20 minutes of matches.
Andrews is hoping Brentford can take that tally to three, though, as they look to seize the initiative early on in East London.
“[Getting off to a fast start] is certainly the hope. [We need to] approach the game in a way where we feel we can get a result,” the former Republic of Ireland international said during his press conference on Friday afternoon.
“We go into every game looking to win, [but] you’ve got to understand the environment you’re going into. The fan element, individual ability, the tactical approach of the opposition… You need to understand every angle of it.
“And we introduced that to the players this morning. We will build that over the next few days going into the game.
“[We will go for] probably the normal approach, nuanced with specifics about what they are, what they do. There is always that angle of how we approach games and how we can hurt them on specific set-piece routines.”
Nuno asks for fan support ahead of his London Stadium debut
Talking of the ‘fan element’, Nuno is pleading for support from the West Ham faithful ahead of a planned boycott by the Hammers United supporters’ group.
While Hammers United are at pains to point out that their fury is not aimed at the coaching staff or even an underperforming group of players – David Sullivan and Karren Brady very much the target of their ire – the London Stadium can be a very difficult place to play when the air turns blue and the clouds go all toxic.
Andrews, though, believes that this West Ham team already has Nuno’s fingerprints on it. In only a few weeks in charge, the man who took Wolves and Nottingham Forest into Europe appears to have created a much more resilient, organised unit, albeit one that still struggles to create goalscoring chances with much regularity.
“You can see his stamp pretty much straight away on the team,” Andrews says. “On certain aspects, they would have been familiar with looking at his Forest team.
“He is a very experienced coach, obviously. And he has gone into a football club where they’ve got some really talented players, for sure. We have done our due diligence on them.”
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