West Ham hanging on till January as Nuno Espirito Santo struggles to revitalise despondent squad

The new Hammers’ boss has experimented with the players at his disposal, but is his squad fit for purpose?

West Ham have played 810 minutes of Premier League football this season, and have spent just over 25 of those minutes in winning positions. That is 3.1% to those who are counting, and a damning indictment of the club’s predicament to those who are not.

Nuno Espirito Santo , just four games into his tenure, is already on borrowed time. His side have shown no signs of improvement since he took over from Graham Potter as they proved at Elland Road on Friday night, sinking to a seventh defeat of the season .

Speaking pre-match, Nuno had called for his players to win their individual duels. Three minutes was all it took for Noah Okafor to steal a march on Ollie Scarles and head towards goal before Brenden Aaronson finished on the rebound.

By the 15-minute mark, West Ham’s defence had lost another header and another goal as Joe Rodon doubled the hosts’ lead. No team has conceded more headed goals than West Ham this season.

The opening goal stemmed from hesitant defending by Scarles and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who Nuno inexplicably decided to start on their unfavoured sides , with Scarles, a left-footed left-back fielded on the right, and Wan-Bissaka, a right-footed right-back playing on the left.

West Ham endured a chastening outing at Elland Road last week

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Nuno’s arrival was supposed to provide a bounce and shore up a defence that looked unsure of itself as Potter chopped and changed in a desperate search for a solution.

Instead, though, there has been further uncertainty, with the former Nottingham Forest boss quickly coming to terms with the fact that the squad at his disposal lacks quality and confidence.

Nuno cannot be blamed for trying to experiment with his team, but so far, he has yet to get any of the big decisions right; playing full-backs out of position, bringing Andy Irving back in from the cold, or neglecting to name a striker at all in his starting lineup.

Nuno is learning, and fast. He admitted he got it wrong by not starting an out-and-out striker against Leeds.

The 51-year-old, though, seems damned either way, with the 25th-minute introduction of Callum Wilson off the bench prompting no real change in momentum.

Wilson is not the player he used to be, while 20-year-old Callum Marshall does not have the experience to be leading the line for a team mired in a relegation battle.

Problem area: West Ham’s lack of a quality striker has grown increasingly glaring

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Nuno’s options are thin. The January transfer window can’t come soon enough, and the club are expected to back him.

During his time in charge, Potter had joked that, to the media’s mind, it sounded like he needed to replace his whole squad when asked about the need for reinforcements before Deadline Day. He wasn’t too far wrong.

West Ham need new players and fresh impetus in midfield, defence, and attack. This is a team and a squad that looks resigned to their fate.

Until January, though, West Ham must stay afloat; they are in danger of getting cut adrift before the midway point of the season.

The Hammers have two massive home games against Newcastle and Burnley to come before the next international break, with supporter protests against the club’s board expected to dominate the build-up to both fixtures.

A supporter sit-in is expected after the full-time whistle against Newcastle, while a mass march will take place ahead of the Burnley game, with supporters set to hand in the fans’ petition, which has so far gained more than 16,000 signatures.

Nuno has to take back control of the narrative. West Ham are sinking without a trace.

However, doing so with a squad, already low on confidence, whose identity he is struggling to get a handle on, is no easy feat.