Credit: Imago

Daniel Davis

Tue 7 April 2026 8:10, UK

West Ham United forward Pablo didn’t take on board crucial advice during the FA Cup knockout at the hands of Leeds United on Sunday, and it cost his side.

A bruising penalty shootout loss at the London Stadium prevented Nuno Espirito Santo‘s Hammers from reaching the semi-finals at Wembley for the first time in 20 years.

Both Jarrod Bowen and Pablo saw their spot-kicks saved by goalkeeper Lucas Perri, with the latter’s miss from 12 yards encapsulating his nightmare day at the office.

The 22-year-old has started poorly at the club and couldn’t make an impact on the last-eight showdown, despite coming on at half-time and playing a further 75 minutes.

While he isn’t the only one to blame for his woes this season, Pablo played a significant part in the Hammers’ defeat after failing to put some simple instructions into action.

What did Pablo do wrong in West Ham v Leeds?

Nuno won’t be impressed with Pablo’s start to life at West Ham, and his performance against Leeds was without a doubt his lowest point since his switch to East London.

He is low on confidence and lacking in cutting-edge, and not even the best efforts of inspirational first-team coach Paco Jemez were enough to arrest his concerning slump.

Indeed, according to The Athletic, Jemez pulled Pablo to the side before the start of extra-time and signalled the type of attacking runs he needed to make.

Damningly, they never happened.

Pablo simply didn’t stretch Leeds’ backline as the match went the distance, and while he saw a goal ruled out for a clear offside, he never looked like delivering an end product.

Standing at over six feet tall, the forward has to be doing better. He should be a no-nonsense, physical fox in the box, but instead, he can’t seem to create a chance.

As a result, Nuno will have to do some serious thinking about his future.

Offside goal sums up Pablo at West Ham

It was not as if a mere matter of inches had prevented him from breaking his duck.

Pablo was comfortably offside after Jarrod Bowen‘s strike hit the post and wasn’t sharp enough to sense the danger, let alone shift into a better position. It wasn’t good enough.

Watching for BBC Sport, pundit Clinton Morrison blasted his “lazy” play, saying: “He’s well offside. He doesn’t even try and get himself back on.”

That, in a nutshell, described his performance. He managed just 40 touches and 18 accurate passes, while his zero per cent shot accuracy was a truly abysmal return.

West Ham will need goals to stay up – but Pablo certainly won’t be providing them.