Premier League: West Ham United vs Nottingham Forest! Powerless to turn things around, is this Nuno's last match before being sacked?

Let's start with our first match discussion today.Premier League: West Ham United vs Nottingham Forest!

At first glance, both sides appear weak — one sits seventeenth, the other eighteenth; one hasn't won in nine games, the other lost four in a row. It’s difficult to judge who’s performing worse.

But looking deeper,West Ham’s problems are structural and systemic, while Nottingham’s issues are mostly localized, with weaknesses in specific positions.

Football can be strange sometimes; winning isn’t always good, and losing isn’t always bad.

For example, Nottingham Forest’s recent 3-0 win over Tottenham wasn’t necessarily a positive.

At that time, Nottingham’s first-choice goalkeeper, Steele, was injured and unavailable, so backup goalkeeper Victor had to play.

Yet, surprisingly, Nottingham won 3-0.

Coach Dyche has a famous principle: reward good performances.

Since Victor won in his first start and made no obvious mistakes, Dyche decided to keep him as the starter.

However, in reality, Nottingham’s victory had little to do with the goalkeeper, because Tottenham performed terribly in a match they wanted to win,only managing one shot on target throughout the gameand never truly tested Victor.

Victor’s performances in subsequent matches were poor; his shot-stopping ability is clearly below Premier League standard, and he’d be better suited to the Championship.

But since he didn’t make any fatal mistakes, Dyche’s personality meant there was no reason to replace him.

Until the last match against Aston Villa, when he finally failed.

Villa didn’t create many chances overall, but Victor first conceded a long-range shot that was easy to save — and Watkins’ long shots are notoriously weak,having taken 296 shots and scored 49 goals over the past three seasons without any goals from distance.As a striker operating mainly in the box, Watkins has little reason or motivation to practice long shots, yet Victor still failed to stop it.

Then, Victor made a baffling decision to come out when he absolutely shouldn’t have, gifting Villa an open goal.

He probably mentally collapsed himself, as he was substituted due to injury less than five minutes after conceding.

This means that tonight, Nottingham is almost certain to reinstate Steele as the starting goalkeeper.

Overall, Nottingham’s defensive quality this season has been decent.

For example, their opponents’ shots on target rate is only 32.4%, the eighth-lowest in the Premier League,which indicates their defenders effectively disrupt attacks and reduce opponents’ accuracy. Not top-tier, but above average and acceptable.

However, 35% of those shots on target turn into goals, which is very high — the sixth highest in the league — mainly due to the goalkeeper’s issues.

Today, Steele’s return also signifies something important:Nottingham Forest will field the full defensive lineup that helped them finish seventh in the Premier League last season for the first time this year.

In the last match, right-back Aina returned from injury since August, making the defense almost complete, only missing their golden-glove goalkeeper.

Now with Steele back, last season’s five-man defensive unit is fully restored, which not only strengthens the squad but also boosts the team’s confidence.

On the other hand, West Ham’s confidence is probably low.

Coach Nuno has increasingly conflicted with the players, making him the top candidate for dismissal.

In the previous 3-0 defeat to Wolves, he shockingly failed to motivate the team during halftime despite their dejected mood, suggesting he himself might be mentally broken.

Although West Ham’s management held an emergency meeting on Sunday,they decided to keep Nuno in charge for this crucial relegation battle.

But history shows us thatthese so-called "last matches before getting sacked" usually end poorly.

If he had the ability to turn things around, why hasn’t he done it earlier? Some of the most dissatisfied players might even deliberately underperform.

Moreover, West Ham’s attack is also frighteningly ineffective —against Wolves, who have the worst defense and most losses, they didn’t register a single shot on target all game.

Keep in mind: they barely defend either.

Coach Nuno currently has no defense; from his time at Nottingham to now at West Ham, he has not kept a clean sheet in 26 consecutive Premier League matches, nearly the worst record in league history.

West Ham now lack defense, conceding the most goals in the Premier League and setting a club record by allowing 41 goals in the first 20 rounds — their worst defensive performance in 60 years.

With no defense and no attack, and no sign of the coach’s ability or team spirit, what does West Ham have left?

So, although both teams seem similarly poor, the differences are actually quite significant.

Will Nottingham satisfy their fans? What do you think? I, Xiaojiu, hope they can secure three points away!

Alright, for today’s other matches, I will still provide written analysis tonight. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask me. “Watch football, watch clearly,” see you then!

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