London Stadium. Saturday 22 August 2026. 3:00 PM. Partly sunny: 21C
Pre-Match Thoughts
The season may be a few games old by now, but it is the daily transfer chatter which continues to dominate the cyber waves. With another week or so still to go, further comings and goings are guaranteed as the bean counters grapple with the two-pronged cash flow and squad cost ratio dilemma. A situation not at all helped by the unwelcome and drawn-out ownership skirmishes dividing the boardroom.
The best advice is don’t get that favourite player’s name printed on the back of your shirt until the final squad lists are published, and the window has finally closed on 1 September. Does the transfer window still slam shut when you’re in the Championship? The jerky grating of an old patio door stuck on its runners is perhaps more in keeping with the make-do-and-mend environment we find ourselves in currently.
Reading supporter’s comments online, I get the sense that transfer schizophrenia abounds. It would be great to unearth emerging talent, but what we need are players with experience at this level. Now’s not the right time to take a flyer on unproven talent when there are immediate problems to solve, they say. Just as it won’t be next season, or the season after that. And that, unfortunately, leaves us with the same short-term, unplanned, expedient recruitment approach that has failed to deliver for the past 15 years. The strategy that is responsible for the haphazard, bits and pieces squad we see before us. Buying tomorrow’s deadwood today by scouring the clearance sales for late career players and overpaying for foreign imports unsuited to the English game. All topped up by an assortment of last-minute emergency loans.
Some feel that Nils Koppen should have made more of a mark by now. But that’s a big call for a guy who is just a few weeks into his job; trying to understand Nuno’s requirements and match them to competent players available at knockdown prices. A Director of Recruitment is for life, not just for a single transfer window!
Still, at least Nuno has a few new options to toy with ahead of today’s visit of Charlton Athletic. Let’s see how it pans out.
The Team Sheets Are In
Chapter 9 of the Timid Manager’s Handbook recommends not starting your new signings until they’ve had at least one game sat on the bench. Surprisingly, Nuno has gone rogue this afternoon and given starting debuts to both Engels and Piroe.
The official website is presenting it as a 4-2-3-1 and it will be interesting to see how that works out in practice. The assumption is that Piroe will be furthest forward and Taty in a more withdrawn role. He’s not my idea of a Number 10 but innocent until proven guilty and all that.
This will be the first home league meeting with Charlton for almost exactly 20 years when West Ham ran out 3-1 victors in August 2006. Former Hammer, Connor Coventry will feature in the Addicks midfield.
Half Time Report
West Ham 0 Charlton 1 (Jones 7)
An all too familiar sluggish start from the Hammers with a formation that shows how dangerous assumptions are when it comes to Nuno. Our new, proven Championship goalscorer has been shoehorned into the Pablo role behind the striker; leaving a disinterested Taty to wander around up top by himself.
Soon, we are a goal down. An innocuous, not particularly long or flat throw-in is allowed to bounce, and the ball is in the back of the net as defenders and goalkeeper look on in amazement.
The pattern of play for the remainder of the half settles into routine frustration. The thrift shop Charlton side are quick and incisive on the break with players able to run with the ball. West Ham are slow and predictable. Hoping to bore the opposition into a stupor by the monotony of their passing.
Focusing your attacks through wide players is a reasonable tactic if you can get the ball out to them quickly and you’re not playing your main striker in midfield. But when you allow opponents to get back into shape while you play triangles in the middle third blunts any offensive threat. Apart from a late Taty header, the Charlton goal face little danger.
Full Time Report
West Ham 1 (Piroe 74) Charlton 2 (Jones 7, Campbell 56)
Nuno replaced Kante with Orford at half-time. One not-really-a-defensive-midfielder for another. This is apparently the extent of his plan for turning things around as everything stayed thesame. The build-up remained ponderous and West Ham still had no-one capable of carrying the ball through the opposition lines. An ability that left (and has never been replaced) with the departure of Declan Rice. On first appearances, it doesn’t look like Arne Engels is the answer to that deficiency.
By the 56th minute, Charlton were two up. Mavropanos had plenty of time to deal with a straightforward punt up field. He made a mess with his original control, had an opportunity to recover but chose to try and buy a foul instead. The referee, perhaps free from the spectre of scrutiny by VAR, was not so easily fooled. A shot from the edge of the box into the corner of the net completed the embarrassment. Should the keeper have done better?
On a good day, Mavropanos is the club’s only reliable defender. But last season’s HOTY becomes a bag of nerves when partnered with Kilman. Neither full-back excels defensively and it is puzzling why the manager continues to opt for Scarles over Mayers.
Defensive lapses are as much a part of West Ham’s DNA as blowing bubbles. A competent defence is a foundation for success. If the recruitment department have only one focus over the next week it should be to find uncompromising replacements for the defensive midfield and centre back positions.
West Ham’s late second half flurry had more to do with Charlton sitting back than any inspired tactical changes. It resulted in a debut goal for Piroe, several headed opportunities that went begging, and a shot from Mukasa that was well saved by the keeper. There should have been a get-out-of-jail card moment in the closing minutes but inexplicably penalty taking duties had been assigned to Taty rather than Bowen. It’s about time, the show-boaty, stuttering penalty run-up was consigned to the Room 101 of football history.
Nuno has become the latest in a sequence of West Ham managers to stand forlorn and bemused on the wide expanse of the London Stadium touchline. Apparently powerless to do anything about the events unfolding on the pitch. His body language says, “I wish I wasn’t here” and, for once, I agree with him.
Did he just get lucky (as managers often do) in those brief spells at Wolves and Forest? He has been at West Ham for a year now and the team shows no sign of developing an effective style of play or demonstrating a football philosophy. Just as timidity didn’t lead to safety last season, it is unlikely to win promotion this.
With a tough run of league and cup games coming up before the international break, his future must surely be in the balance. No doubt, we must endure the obligatory x games to save his job charade before sanity prevails.
Pointathon Update
With two games gone and a points per game average of 0.5, the run rate to reach an automatic promotion target of 90 points has increased from 1.96 to 2.02 points per game. Five out of a possible 138 points have been lost forever.
Plenty to think about on the training ground then. In my old football training days, we would regularly play shirts versus skins. I wonder if Nuno goes for Square Pegs versus Round Holes? COYI!
Under The Hammers 