West Ham United officially confirmed the departure of Graham Potter as the club’s first-team head coach with immediate effect on Saturday morning, less than 72 hours before their Premier League clash with Everton.
The English manager, formerly of Brighton and Chelsea, only won six of his 25 matches in charge of the club in all competitions, a win rate of 24%.
He can have no complaints with the decision by the board, given that record, but the timing of it, after he took the press conference ahead of the game against Everton, is slightly strange.
Former Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo has immediately replaced Potter in the dugout, as the Hammers look to get their season back on track.
Why Nuno Espirito Santo is a great appointment for West Ham
The Portuguese head coach led Forest to a seventh-place finish in the Premier League last term, before a fractured relationship with owner Evangelos Marinakis led to his dismissal earlier this season.
Nuno has led Wolves and Forest to European football in England, which shows that he has a successful track record in the division, and his skills as a defensive coach are exactly what West Ham need.
Heading into this weekend’s round of fixtures, not taking Saturday’s results into account, West Ham were bottom of the Premier League for goals conceded (13) and 16th in the division for xGA (7.6), per FBref.
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Last season, Nuno’s Forest team ranked ninth for xGA (48.9) and sixth for goals conceded (46), per FBref, which shows that he can organise a defence and make a side solid and hard to beat.
The biggest winner from Nuno Espirito Santo's arrival at West Ham
The biggest winner from Potter’s sacking and the former Forest manager’s arrival at the London Stadium could be central defender Jean-Clair Todibo.
After starting in defeats to Sunderland and Chelsea, the Frenchman was an unused substitute in the games against Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace in the last two weeks.
Nuno’s arrival could revive his West Ham career because the Portuguese boss has often utilised a 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-3 formation, which would open the door for him to return to the starting XI with the extra centre-back spot available in that system.
During his time at Wolves, the tactician explained that the 3-4-3 system allowed Conor Coady, the middle centre-back, to progress the play with his ability on the ball, which is why Todibo could thrive in that formation.
Pass accuracy
89.6%
87.9%
Progressive passes
5.09
1.87
Progressive carries
1.09
0.44
Passes into the final third
3.84
2.17
Passes into the penalty area
0.24
0.05
As you can see in the table above, the France international was far more influential in possession during his time with Nice in Ligue 1 in the 2023/24 campaign than he was with the Hammers last term.
This suggests that West Ham were not using Todibo, who was once described as a “ball-playing sensation” by U23 scout Antonio Mango, enough in possession with their build-up play.
Nuno’s 3-4-3 system, should he opt to go with that, could get the best out of the Frenchman by deploying him in the same role that Coady had at Wolves, allowing him time and space to pick out passes or to carry the ball forward as the middle centre-back in a three.
Therefore, the former Nice star could be the biggest winner from Nuno’s appointment because he may go from being an unused substitute under Potter to an influential part of the system under the new manager because of his ball-playing qualities at centre-back.
