Nuno Espírito Santo should make just one change to the team ahead of Saturday’s match against Derby County.
West Ham won their first Championship game of the season on Tuesday with an impressive 4-2 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers at the London Stadium.
The phrase “don’t change a winning team” often applies, and I agree with it for the most part ahead of Saturday. However, I would make one change in attack.
Taty Castellanos was reportedly rested during the week; the reason why was unclear, but he was fit enough to come on, so I can’t imagine he’s nursing an injury. So, I would expect him to come back in from the start for this one.
I would start Taty in place of Pablo; this may be harsh because he did have a pretty solid game. However, we will almost definitely be dominating the ball for a large chunk of the game, so I don’t think the Brazilian’s skillset and work rate will be as important in this game compared to Tuesday.
Also, he is just coming back from an injury, which may have been why he came off just before the 70th minute.
I was tempted to keep Pablo in because he did play so well; however, so did Piroe. He did excellently to win the penalty that Bowen converted.
A front two of Piroe and Taty would be the best option for this fixture. We need to start fast, get an early goal so the visitors don’t have anything to hold onto.
Pablo is still yet to find the back of the net for the Hammers, so he isn’t best suited for that. Both Taty’s and Piro’s willingness to shoot from inside or outside the box could really help us out.
Hopefully Nuno sees sense and plays Taty as the deeper of the two if he opts to go with both of them, but even if he doesn’t, it would probably be the right choice, with us likely to be on the front foot due to their tactics.
My team for Derby: Hermansen; Walker-Peters, Mavropanos, Kilman, Scarles; Bowen, Engels, Mukasa, Solomon; Piroe, Castellanos.
