Former Tottenham Hotspur, Portsmouth and Wolves midfielder Jamie O’Hara visited the London Stadium for a charity match recently, and he saw little difference between that and West Ham United vs Brentford on Monday night.
Jordan Henderson, the 35-year-old veteran at the heart of Keith Andrews’ engine room, could hardly have had a more straightforward evening. Controlling proceedings with a cigar in his mouth and a cup of tea in his hand.
On a day when Nuno Espirito Santo bizarely left Freddie Potts out in favour of Andy Irving and Guido Rodriguez, while leaving Tomas Soucek exposed in what appeared at times to be a one-man midfield, visitors Brentford produced 17 shots to West Ham United’s seven.
They also dominated 57 per cent of the possession, and produced 137 more passes.
Nuno brought off Mateus Fernandes at half-time, too. Thus, making life even harder for an ageing, swamped Soucek.
O’Hara and talkSPORT co-host Jason Cundy could not help but feel some sympathy for the 30-year-old Czech international during a dreadful team performance in which only Crysencio Summerville looked likely to make something happen.
Crysencio Summerville a positive as Jamie O’Hara and Jason Cundy hit out at West Ham United
Following his second defeat in three matches since replacing Graham Potter, Nuno accepted that it is the job of the coaching staff and the players to get an unhappy fanbase back onside.
Performances like this will not help in that regard.
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“I tell you what, 99 per cent of fans will follow a player who will run through a brick wall for you,” says O’Hara. “You don’t have to be the best player in the world. You don’t even have to be that talented!
“If you are going to run around and commit, wear your heart on your sleeve, I tell you what, the fans will come with you.
“Give me a player who does that? Summerville, he carries the ball well, I will give him that. But where is the player who wants to drag the team up?”
“I mean, I can’t see right now how West Ham stay up if that is what continues to happen,” agrees Cundy, who also highlights the former Leeds winger as a rare plus point in a miserable display. “I cannot see how West Ham can get out of that.
“There was absolutely nothing. Sometimes, you look and you it’s not happening for you, [but] there might be a couple of little passages of play. [Against Brentford, there was] nothing.
“Summerville was the only one who carried the ball for any distance. They don’t look like they want to be there, the players. It is as bad as you can possibly get. I can’t think right now how much worse it could get.”
Tomas Soucek was left exposed by Nuno Espirito Santo
Cundy, who also played Premier League football for Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, saw Nuno’s midfield set-up backfire as Henderson was given the run of things in Brentford blue.
Though how much of a difference the aforementioned Potts would have made – albeit far younger, quicker and energetic than the likes of Soucek, Irving and Rodriguez – is anyone’s guess. Cundy and O’Hara feel that it may be a tactical issue, as well as a personnel problem.
“The two in midfield [for Brentford], those two could not believe how much time they had,” Cundy adds. “No one is getting up close and personal. No one. Nuno has got to get up the pitch. He can’t play like that in every game.
“He’s gone with Soucek; vastly experienced. [But] West Ham’s problem all season has been that area. They can’t get close enough because they are sat so deep. You have got to come another 10, 15 yards up the pitch.
“I know you want to defend in a low block but that was too deep.”
O’Hara says this is West Ham’s worst Premier League side
O’Hara, meanwhile, feels this is a West Ham team that would struggle to get a result up against the Avram Grant-led side which finished rock bottom in 2011.
“This has got to be probably the worst West Ham side I’ve seen in the Premier League,” O’Hara says.
“I’ve played in charity games at West Ham, honestly, I could have played tonight,” You watch my highlights from the charity game when I played there about three months ago, that was Jordan Henderson.
“Literally, no one’s near him. He can do what he wants. Any player can just sit there and string a ball about and look good, but there’s no one tackling you.
“I couldn’t believe what I was watching.”