Nuno Espirito Santo’s obsession with playing Mo Kante as a deep midfielder needs to stop, as it costs West Ham more points at Watford. 

You’d think subbing him off at half-time in his first game playing in that position, while losing to Charlton Athletic at home would be enough to give up on an experiment.

But no, Nuno Espirito Santo continues to prove he’s not a very good football manager by deciding to start Mohammadou Kante as the deepest midfielder once again, over Lewis Orford, the player who has probably been our best player so far this season, who is a natural fit for the role and makes the team play much better.

After being subbed at half-time last Saturday, this Saturday Kante made it to the 65th minute before being replaced by the England U20 international.

This isn’t even anything to do with Kante; the Frenchman has proven he’s a talented player, and we’ve seen him this season against Portsmouth especially. This is solely on Nuno; Kante is a player who needs to be the most advanced midfielder, ideally in a midfield three.

The twenty-year-old’s strengths are his athleticism; in possession he’s at his best in space, where he can stretch his legs and cover ground; he can’t do that in this formation, let alone almost playing as a number six. Why we’re playing someone with comfortably less technical ability than Tomas Soucek in a ‘regista’ role is absolutely crazy, and Nuno has now done it twice.

To put the blame on dropping more points this afternoon solely on that would be wrong; it isn’t just that. Yes, the players are partly to blame, but the way Nuno is setting them out tactically as a team, and some of the players like Kante, Taty, and Piroe individually, is nothing short of embarrassing.

He’s by far the highest-profile manager in the league, by far and away the highest-paid manager in the league, and he’s being outcoached weekly by the likes of Nathan Jones, and Alessio Dionisi.

A lot of fans, myself included, are really starting to lose patience with Nuno; he needs to change his ways fast, or he could be gone.