West Ham United’s 3-2 home defeat by Southampton was one of those occasions where the blame could be apportioned to a number of different areas, accusing fingers pointing in the direction of many on and off the pitch.

Nuno Espirito Santo threw his weight behind Taty Castellanos and was ‘rewarded’ by another ineffective performance as Joel Piroe and Pablo watched on from the bench, twiddling their thumbs and wondering when their chance would arrive.

And on the day that Tomas Soucek scored his 50th goal in West Ham United colours – a 93rd minute consolation from the bench – one can only wonder if the home side would have found the net with more than two of their 29 attempts had Soucek started.

Nuno and Taty Castellanos under fire as Southampton beat West Ham United

For many of Hammers News’ TalkingPoints users, this was a perfect storm. Appropriate really, considering the weather. A combination of poor managerial choices, and below-par performances, wasteful attackers and dodgy defenders.

And Taty, unsurprisingly, was the subject of much post-match criticism. He mustered only two shots on target across 90 minutes, and had only five of West Ham’s 56 touches inside the Southampton box.

Featured comment

swhitecrossuk8

good job its down to 8th place, well in with a play off place but 1st half performances need to improve if we want automatic promotion sack off Taty and give Piroe his chance proven championship striker

Join the conversation →

Featured comment

alanjarvis08

I think its hard, was there today, and a crazy game. I think Taty is a very good CF, but he needs better service, when a CF doesn’t score, its easy to say drop him, but he needs quality passes as well, he gets the ball to his feet or better through balls, he scores 3 out of 5, the formation and tactics aren’t right in my opinion, like it is now.

Join the conversation →

And then you’ve got the midfield conundrum. Not for the first time – the 3-2 defeat at Bolton and the dreadful first-half at Millwall come to mind – Arne Engels and Divine Mukasa as a pairing had about as much resistance as wet tissue paper.

Time and again, Southampton cut through the centre of the pitch with ease as James Ward-Prowse rolled back the years. It was knife through butter stuff.

Edson Alvarez absent again as Nuno’s suitability is questioned

Again, there was no sign of Edson Alvarez. Soungoutou Magassa’s supposed revival is yet to take shape. But is it time Nuno reintegrated one of his more naturally defensive midfielders? Yes, West Ham have scored the most goals in the league. But they’ve also conceded as many [15] as Bristol City and Sheffield United.

Featured comment

cumberworth57

Torn apart at the back and centre midfield at the start, what is he saying to them? Must have someone holding in CM, still should have scored 6 but not good enough!

Join the conversation →

Featured comment

pwithey1

Ok, let’s get real.. hands up all those who still think we have the best squad in the league ? And who still thinks that these players are the ones that are capable of getting us automatic promotion ? I counted 6 players in the starting 11 that are not good enough to play for our club.

Join the conversation →

Featured comment

andrewbostick6

Another poor start it is as if we give teams goal starts then play is it poor team selection or players not ready from minute one. So many times last season and this poor first half performances have cost us. Why is a striker who isn’t firing starting a head of one when supposedly Piroe is a championship scoring machine.

Join the conversation →

Featured comment

wmw5twfhm5

I haven’t ever been convinced that Nuno is the boss? We Need another to make us the team we deserve to be be! Eddie Howe or Craig Bellamy who’d be my choice! COYI ⚒️

Join the conversation →