Nuno Espirito Santo brought in Soungoutou Magassa as West Ham played host to Liverpool on Sunday afternoon.
The Portuguese even changed his system in order to fit in Magassa, Freddie Potts, Lucas Paqueta and Mateus Fernandes in the same starting eleven.
While the Reds had the better chances in the first half, they failed to breach Alphonse Areola’s goal.
Soungoutou Magassa appears to be flirting with a booking
While Magassa has done a decent job at getting stuck into the Liverpool players, he is flirting with a yellow card.
His challenge on Ryan Gravenberch certainly merited a booking, but he managed to get away with it.
Darren England will have been told about this error and he will look to brandish a card the next time the 22-year-old commits a foul.
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Also, Magassa does not appear to be the tidiest in possession and is unable to provide the quick pass to one of the attacking players in transition.
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According to Sofascore, he’s only managed to complete 12 passes with an accuracy of 71 per cent.
That number reduces even further when passes in the final third are considered, as he’s found success only 57 per cent of the time.
It does make sense to take him off at half-time and potentially bring in Tomas Soucek, who’ll offer a lot of physicality and also prove to be a set-piece threat.
Tomas Soucek prepares to captain Czech Republic in a World Cup qualifier
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Has Nuno made the right tactical decision for West Ham vs Liverpool?
Nuno’s tactical decisions appear to have paid off in the first half against Liverpool.
He moved to a back four and the Hammers seemed to take the game to the Reds rather than just sitting back.
Konstantinos Mavropanos returned to training this week and was right into the playing eleven, although he may not play the full 90 minutes.
The medical staff may advise Nuno to take it easy with the Greece international, as they would not want a re-injury to occur.
Things appear to be going as per plan for the Portuguese now, but the second half could be a completely different ball game if he does not get his substitutions spot on.
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