Nuno Espírito Santo demanded more ‘commitment, focus and responsibility’ from his players after West Ham United’s 2-1 Premier League defeat at Leeds United on Friday.
The Head Coach was unimpressed by the way his team conceded twice in the opening 15 minutes at Elland Road, first by failing to deal with a cross and reacting too slow to stop Brenden Aaronson firing Leeds in front inside three minutes, then by conceding a second when Joe Rodon headed in from a corner.
Put simply, Nuno wants his players to show more desire to defend their goal and stop their opponents from scoring.
West Ham did keep plugging away in the Yorkshire wind and rain and pulled a goal back through Matheus Fernandes’ well-taken 90th-minute header, but it was too little, too late for the Londoners, who have now won just once in the opening nine Premier League matches.
Nuno closed by empathising with the frustration being felt by the Claret and Blue Army, who rightly expect more from their team, and vowed to keep working and keep pushing his players to produce better performances and results.
It’s not hard to talk. It’s the reality and we have to face it.
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].
I went [onto the pitch after the final whistle] and I see the frustration of the supporters.
I see the anger and the disappointment in their faces and we understand them. It’s up to us to change things.
It’s up to us to deserve their support.
