Nuno Espirito Santo must fix emerging issue now if he wants to keep West Ham in Premier League
West Ham will be Premier League relegation certainties if Nuno Espirito Santo fails to address an issue that has emerged over the past four games.
The Hammers have dropped back into the relegation zone in the last week, sparking fears about the safety of their top-flight status.
On Sunday, West Ham drew 1-1 with Brighton at the AMEX Stadium, with Georginio Rutter’s late strike cancelling out Jarrod Bowen’s opener.
Rutter’s goal could’ve been ruled out after Konstantinos Mavropanos was kicked in the head by Charalampos Kostoulas, but VAR decided not to take action.
West Ham are failing to hold onto leads
After two massive wins against Newcastle United and Burnley before the international break, West Ham have picked up just three points from their past four games.
Despite not managing a victory in their last quartet of matches, Nuno’s side have been leading in two of them, away at Bournemouth and Brighton.
Rutter’s controversial equaliser on 7 December followed a disappointing collapse against Bournemouth, in which West Ham led 2-0 with 20 minutes remaining.
Callum Wilson’s first-half brace put the Hammers in control, but late goals from Marcus Tavernier and Enes Unal turned the game on its head.
In fact, if it wasn’t for the heroics of Alphonse Areola, West Ham would’ve been leaving the south coast empty-handed.
- Read More: Jonathan Pearce aghast at Konstantinos Mavropanos’ moment in Brighton vs West Ham – ‘Awful’
Nuno is to blame for West Ham collapses
Since Nuno took over from Graham Potter earlier this season, he has undoubtedly improved the situation at the London Stadium.
However, the Portuguese manager must still be criticised for the manner in which West Ham are throwing games away at the moment.
Against Bournemouth, Nuno replaced Luis Guilherme and Wilson with Kyle Walker-Peters and Tomas Soucek, with his side 2-0 up, two incredibly negative substitutions that ultimately backfired.
The 51-year-old then made the exact same mistake while leading at Brighton, Soucek and Soungoutou Magassa replacing Lucas Paqueta and Mateus Fernandes with ten minutes remaining, with the hosts then grabbing an equaliser.
Nuno’s tactic of shutting up shop and inviting pressure when his side are winning must be halted immediately, otherwise West Ham will continue to struggle.
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