When a club is an established part of English football’s upper echelons, plays its home games inside a 68,000-seater stadium, and promptly breaks the Championship transfer record following relegation from the top flight, there are expectations that naturally follow. By all accounts, West Ham were supposed to breeze through what is only meant to be a brief dalliance with a second-tier existence. To be winless three league matches into the season was inconceivable.
If the travelling contingent’s boos after this draw at Watford were fleeting, their subsequent burst of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” directed at their team’s manager left no ambiguity. No matter how embryonic this campaign is, the repeated impotency is already unacceptable, and now Nuno Espírito Santo is in the firing line. A 46-game Championship season is long and there remains abundant time to turn things around.
But when you suggest that spending £22m on Arne Engels is with a view to him playing in the Premier League – as Nuno did earlier this summer – you leave yourself little wriggle room when things do not follow the expectedly smooth course. I work very hard with them. I just ask again to keep believing, keep trusting us, keep going and we will try to reverse it.
The win must come, hopefully on Tuesday [against fellow relegated side Wolves]. We need it.” That this draw – which followed another against Burnley and defeat to Charlton – came against a Watford team openly treading water only emphasised West Ham’s struggles. A side that only finished 16th last season has barely strengthened in the intervening months, with the lack of depth leaving new manager Alessio Dionisi no choice but to alter training sessions to cope with having so few first-team players at his disposal.
A bench that included two goalkeepers sent a silent message to those tasked with providing Watford reinforcements in the closing days of the transfer window. Yet after what was anticipated to be a horror start to the campaign – with fixtures against promotion favourites Southampton, Wrexham and West Ham – Dionisi’s side are unbeaten. The Italian admitted he did not know of Amin Nabizada before arriving in Hertfordshire, but few Championship followers are now unaware of the 19-year-old academy product’s unbridled talent now.
The English-born Afghanistan international had never started a senior game prior to this season, but has been ever present in Dionisi’s side so far this campaign, frequently providing Watford’s most potent attacking threat. His second goal in three appearances put the hosts ahead when a neat stepover created sufficient space on the left side of the penalty area, and he delicately curled the ball over Mads Hermansen and into the top corner. For all that West Ham’s vigour rose as the match wore on, they ended it with just a solitary shot on target.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
