Nuno Espírito Santo says the next fortnight will be an important time for him and his players as he settles into his role as West Ham United’s Head Coach.
The Portuguese has had a whirlwind week since his appointment last Saturday, taking charge of Premier League fixtures at Everton and Arsenal and getting to know his players and staff.
Nuno has been assisted by Academy coaches Mark Robson, Steve Potts, Gerard Prenderville and Billy Lepine, who have introduced him to his squad and given him valuable information, particularly about the younger members of the group.
Two of them, Freddie Potts and Premier League debutant Callum Marshall, helped the Hammers battle until the very end of Saturday’s 2-0 Premier League defeat by the Gunners at Emirates Stadium.
Nuno felt his team showed improvement in defending corners and crosses, as Arsenal scored only from a Declan Rice rebound and a Bukayo Saka penalty, but conceded that there is work to do to implement his style and philosophy.
That will happen over the coming two weeks for those players who have not been selected for international duty, while the Head Coach believes those who have been called up will benefit from spending time in fresh environments with their respective national teams.
Speaking with a steely focus to West Ham TV, Nuno is looking forward to his first home game as Head Coach when Brentford visit London Stadium on Monday 20 October…
I think it’s not easy to be always together in such a difficult game.
There are moments of frustration, but I think the boys answered good. Many parts of our game we did well and not so well in other aspects.
We are moving forward.
I think we have to improve in many things.
There are so many things that we need to do. We defended set-pieces slightly better. I think we didn’t create too many problems for ourselves on that.
On the other hand, I think we had two good situations and the small details inside of them are important, but overall in the game, the organisation was there to press in the gaps.
Mistakes that happened it is up to us now to correct with the ball. We didn’t have too many situations of going and having a breather, except some minutes in the first half.
It’s a tough place. I think in that aspect it was a good test for us, but I told the boys and I told you, ‘OK, we can lose. What we have to do, and I think we did, was make our opponents work harder’.
We have to improve in many things, but the willingness is there, the will and the desire to do it is there, so let’s do it.
It’s important for us to know all the players.
At the same time, bringing young lads on allows us to know them better. It’s not a lack of respect for the experienced players like Callum Wilson. When I came in I think he understands my address as I was honest with him.
It’s about knowing each other better, seeing all the options that we have. It’s all about that.
I think we are building for our new future. Our new future now is Brentford. I think we have to really get in our minds that it’s a priority that we compete very well.
We have several international players that are going away.
For them also it’s important that in this break to go to a different environment because a lot of things have happened in our Club that we have to settle down.
It’s going to be important, first of all, to work on the mental aspect of the boys and realise that we are in a new cycle that requires a lot of commitment.
Then comes the training sessions, then comes the meals, the meetings and the unity that we need to progress.
