Nuno Espirito Santo makes 'very bad' West Ham admission in 'commitment' rant

West Ham are in a troubling spot after another disappointing defeat. The Hammers kicked off the Premier League’s weekend action with a 2-0 defeat to Leeds United on Friday night.

Traveling fans were left deflated after Leeds scored twice within the first 15 minutes, and West Ham’s response didn’t come until it was too late, with Mateus Fernandes scoring in stoppage time.

It has been West Ham’s worst start in 52 years, even worse than their last relegation season, with just four points to their name after nine Premier League outings to date. Nuno Espirito Santo has a giant job on his hands if he is to save the Hammers, especially with the quality of this squad, which seems to be below what is required in the Premier League this season.

After the game, Jarrod Bowen said: “Obviously, when you’re second-bottom in the league and you’ve won one game all season, the feeling is low. I think the only way that’s going to change is if we as players step up, show some character, roll our sleeves up and get ready for the fight.

“It’s easy to say, and it’s hard to do sometimes, but we have to do that. I think we need that week in, week out, because in my mind that’s the only way. I’ve told the players that we need to pull our finger out now, because this is the Premier League, and no-one’s going to give us anything.

“We have to face up to the reality of where we are, and get results. We’ve done that over the years, but we’re not doing that now, and we’re not playing well, so we need to change that. As much as you can speak to each other, and we do have open conversations, I think it has to come from within. I think we all have the hunger, but the table shows we’re not doing enough, and we have to turn things around.”

Santo fed up of talk

In Bowen’s defence, he is required to speak after the game and there isn’t a whole lot he can say beyond what he did. The West Ham players have to at least tell the fans they are fighting to change things, but while he wasn’t addressing Bowen directly, Santo is already fed up of all the talk about changing things after just a few weeks in charge, knowing full well that action is the only real way to correct this poor start.

“It’s not hard to talk. It’s the reality and we have to face it,” he said. “We started the game very bad, very bad in the way we approach our defensive situation in the box. We allow the contact, we allow the second shot on target. Then comes a corner. It’s a goal from a corner, something that we slightly improved in the previous game, but they punished us again. Commitment, focus and responsibility is all that we want from our players.

“We must [show commitment and desire to get to the ball first in our penalty area]. We must. We still have time, but let’s not hide ourselves. We have to be [better] immediately and it starts tomorrow to work hard on a long week. We have to show at home a different situation. Before all of it there has to be responsibility and there are things that it’s very hard to take.

“It’s very hard to take. It’s disappointing after the preparation and all these things that we mentioned. We knew and we are being punished by things that we know.

“We have to give credit to the teams [who beat us] but I truly believe that we are the ones that are losing the games. We are the ones that are making the mistakes. We are the ones that we should blame ourselves.

“I credit always our opponents. When you win, maybe you don’t find so many things [to work on] and when you lose all the questions come. For me, as I see it, it’s an immediate reaction from ourselves [that we need].”

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