It’s fair to say Nuno Espirito Santo will have done a very good job at West Ham United if the Premier League strugglers can one day be described as a ‘relentless, goalscoring, winning, football machine’.
That is a long way off right now.
One goal and one point; While West Ham United certainly look a more organised, well-drilled unit under Nuno Espirito Santo, big improvements are still required at the other end of the pitch.
Not that Graham Potter’s London Stadium successor needs telling, of course. After a 2-0 defeat by Arsenal in which they failed to register even a single shot on target, Nuno admitted the Hammers have ‘a lot of negatives’ to fix. Particularly with regards to their attacking play and their work in possession.
Of the 96 teams in Europe’s ‘top five’ leagues, only 18 have scored fewer than West Ham.
Coventry City, of course, do not feature in such rankings. But, as Frank Lampard’s scintillating Sky Blues outfit continue to rattle off emphatic win after emphatic win, it surely won’t be long before Coventry are back in the Premier League for the first time a quarter of a century.
Hammers News reported, days before Nuno’s appointment in late-September, that sporting director Mark Noble was impressed by Lampard’s Coventry revival.
Now, with more goals to their name than even Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bundesliga 100 per centers Bayern Munich, the England icon has not only taken the Sky Blues to the top of the Championship table, he has also created one of the most thrilling, ruthless attacking teams on the continent.
Photo by Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesCoventry City boss Frank Lampard shows why West Ham director Mark Noble likes him
Hammers News’ chief football correspondent Graeme Bailey revealed that, while West Ham understandably opted for the safest pair of hands possible in Nuno Espirito Santo, Noble ‘pushed the cases’ of some bright, young English coaches.
Michael Carrick retains the belief of West Ham’s sporting director, despite his sacking by Middlesbrough in the summer. Noble, the former Hammers captain, also appreciates the job Scott Parker has done at Burnley.
As for Lampard, those who mourned the death of his managerial career after that Everton exit and a dismal second spell at Chelsea have seen the 47-year-old rise, Undertaker-like, from the proverbial coaching coffin.
“Cov are just scoring a stupid amount of goals,” EFL expert George Elek said on the Not the Top 20 podcast after Lampard’s team thrashed Sheffield Wednesday 5-0 at Hillsborough on Saturday.
“Their early goalscoring exploits looked like it was maybe a purple patch, but they’ve now scored 27 goals this season. Twelve more than any other team in the league.
“It is absolutely ridiculous. Lampard and [assistant Joe] Edwards, as a management duo, deserve massive credit for building what is just a relentless, goalscoring, winning, football machine.”
If Championship sides were placed alongside those in the Premier League, Ligue 1, Serie A, Bundesliga and La Liga – and some may argue England’s second tier is indeed the sixth-strongest competition on the continent – Coventry would be the most prolific team of the lot.
Coventry have scored more goals than Bayern Munich and Barcelona
Not only did they put four past Millwall and five past both Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday, Coventry also obliterated Queens Park Rangers with a 7-1 thumping back in August.
This is not merely the result of an electrifying Haji Wright either.
While Wright currently leads the Championship’s Golden Boot race, his 4-2-3-1 system has not only got the best out of his star centre-forward, but also athletic, dynamic midfielders Victor Torp and Jack Rudoni, plus rampaging right-back Milan van Ewijk.
While Nuno aims to marry a solid backline with free-flowing counter-attacking – emulating his Europa League-qualifying success at Nottingham Forest along the way – Lampard’s pre-season plans have reaped pretty remarkable rewards in the Midlands.
“We spoke a lot this season how we can improve as a team and we became a really strong possession team at the end of last season,” Lampard told the Coventry Telegraph after that Millwall battering.
“But we also want to be direct in moments in transition and running forward.”
However things go under Nuno from here on in, whether or not the Portuguese sees out his three-year contract or even extends it later down the line, Mark Noble’s admiration for his fellow West Ham graduate is only going to grow should Lampard build on highly-successful beginnings at Coventry City.