Nuno must do 'kind thing' and axe 'sloppy' West Ham star from XI against Tottenham - opinion

West Ham scraped past a determined QPR side to progress in the FA Cup on Sunday afternoon with Nuno Espirito Santo ending a run of 10 matches without a victory in charge of the side.

Crysencio Summerville opened the scoring for the hosts before a nifty Richard Kone header drew the R’s level and sent the game into extra time. January signing Taty Castellanos then came up with the goods in extra time, bagging his first goal for the club to secure a 2-1 win.

It’s an important victory for West Ham and Nuno but, once again, there were large periods of the game where the Premier League side lacked dynamism and were guilty of silly mistakes. One player who was perhaps the sloppiest on the pitch for the Hammers was Soungoutou Magassa.

West Ham midfielder struggles against QPR

West Ham paid £17 million to sign the 22-year-old from Monaco this summer and there’s the feeling he is somewhat of an unpolished gem, with plenty of development to go. Magassa is seeing regular minutes in the Premier League but, as with many colleagues, has faced criticism in recent weeks.

The magnifying glass over the performances of West Ham players looked to have got to the midfielder against QPR. A careless piece of chest control saw the player lose the ball early on in the first half and an overhit pass to Aaron Wan-Bissaka followed soon after. He lacked confidence.

There were other occasions where QPR were able to pounce on Magassa’s errors and counter too. With those instances continuing into the second half, when the midfielder was also eventually shown a yellow card.

Nuno must drop ‘sloppy’ Magassa against Spurs

Magassa did pick up the assist for Summerville’s goal - although that is one of the easier passes he’ll make in his life - and there were impressive interventions too, winning the ball high up to regain possession in the 61st minute.

However, those lapses in concentration and sloppy touches will be punished by more potent teams in the Premier League. Doing that at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next week could prove very costly.

Therefore, taking Magassa out of the starting XI against Spurs feels the kindest thing to do. Until the player regains some confidence and composure, he’s a lamb to the slaughter on the biggest stage.

It’s something that Nuno is aware of too. When speaking about Magassa’s progress earlier this season, he said: “Arriving to the Premier League for any player is really difficult to adapt, to show all these things, it takes time. We have a lot of situations like that [of Magassa] with players who we need to be patient with but at the same time to recognise their quality and talent is there for us to exploit.”

In other news, 'In Talks': West Ham star makes squad to take on QPR hours after transfer negotiations emerge.