West Ham’s use of strikers this season has been nothing short of embarrassing under Nuno Espírito Santo so far this season.

It all looked well and good at the start of this month when Taty Castellanos scored a brace, and Pablo Felipe got an assist as West Ham beat Portsmouth 3-1 in the first round of the Carabao Cup.

However, since then it really hasn’t worked out at the top of the pitch for the Hammers. Pablo got injured in the first half of the Burnley match and was withdrawn at the break. Since then, Piroe and Taty have been paired in attack.

Both players have scored since then; however, as a pair they really aren’t working, and it’s not down to them. Nuno Espírito Santo is heavily to blame for our attack being so stale. The Portuguese manager has been playing them the wrong way round.

The whole second half of last season, I thought Taty should’ve played as the deeper of the two strikers with Pablo as the stereotypical number nine. But he didn’t, and you could understand why because Pablo’s work rate, pressing and flick-ons made him very useful to the team in that deeper role in games where we didn’t have much of the ball.

However, now Piroe has come in, and we’re in the Championship, Nuno has done a straight swap. Taty is still playing as the most advanced forward with the Surinamese striker playing in behind, almost as a ten. Piroe hasn’t looked awful individually at times in that position; he’s actually quite a good dribbler, which has really surprised me. 

However, the 27-year-old not only doesn’t have quite the same work rate as Pablo; unlike the Brazilian, he is a real threat in front of goal and comes alive in the box. So WHY is he playing as the ten and the more creative player playing as the number nine when we’re struggling to break down defences?

We saw Taty drop deep on one occasion at Vicarage Road and he played an inch-perfect ball in behind to Manor Solomon, who was only denied by some expert defending by Watford captain Pollock. 

If Nuno wants to keep his job, he needs to change a lot of things, but changing the positioning of Taty and Piroe when they play together is almost as crucial as stopping playing Kante as a deep midfielder.