Nuno Espirito Santo has a huge opportunity to win back the West Ham fans tonight. 

The Hammers host the Portuguese manager’s former employers, Wolverhampton Wanderers, tonight. On paper, this might be one of the toughest fixtures of the season.

However, football isn’t played on paper, and I feel like this is one of the matches that Nuno’s tactics could actually work.

We all knew what Nuno was when we got him: a defence-first, pragmatic manager who doesn’t really care about the football as long as he gets results.

Well, that works in the Premier League at a club like West Ham, and despite still getting relegated, he did really improve us. However, on the other hand. That style doesn’t work at a club like West Ham in the EFL Championship. And we’ve seen that in our woeful start to this campaign.

Wolves are probably the only club with a squad that’s comparable in talent to the Hammers. Raul Jimenez, Kieran Trippier, Mane, Hwang, and Andre have all proven themselves in the PL. Fer Lopez is a player expected to do big things in the second tier this season.

Despite being by far the best squad we can face on paper this season, I think it’s one of the most winnable matches for us right now because we can play how we’re used to; we probably won’t have to break down a sitting defence tonight, which is what we’ve really struggled with. Wolves will come at us a lot more, leaving space for us on the counter-attack.

Wolves are heavy favourites here after our appalling start to the season, and I don’t think there’s any pressure on him to lose his job if we lose. However, a loss against Derby on Saturday, no matter the result tonight, and that pressure will soon start to mount.