Twenty days without a competitive kick of a ball… That is the bill for this new-look international break.
Our Hammers take the long pause after a scrap at The Den and do not return until Queens Park Rangers visit London Stadium on Friday 9 October. Yes, it is the same for every Championship club, of course. However, that does not make it any less of a problem for a side trying to smash its way straight back into the Premier League.
Nuno Espírito Santo, speaking to BBC Sport after the Millwall draw, was clear enough: we are still learning this division, we are being punished for physicality — those throw-in goals were a warning — and we cannot waste time.
Saturday told us what we already feared. First half: overrun, soft at set pieces, not enough bodies in the middle of the park when Millwall came through us. Second half: fight, shape change, a point rescued. That is character. It is not a finished product.
A Hammers News report this morning claims there is real anger inside the club about the length of the interruption — described by a leading source as a “killer” for momentum — and that there have been internal talks about the imbalance in Nuno’s side.
The football in front of our eyes does not need a quote to explain itself. Two central midfielders and two strikers looks tasty when we are rolling teams over. Against a proper Championship scrap, it has looked light.
Dangerous going forward, yes. However, we at times look vulnerable when the game turns into a fight. Pablo asked to do the running for half a midfield. Kanté — our new cult hero after that Den cameo — already ruled out for QPR on a one-match ban after the professional foul.
Soucek is still working his way back. The break is three weeks of training-ground honesty.
Fifteen points from eight is not a crisis. It is also not automatic-promotion pace if we keep dropping points when the intensity rises. The source talk of needing another three-or-four-game winning run after the break is not drama — it is maths.
West Ham cannot come back for QPR with the same soft first-half habits we took to The Den.
Use the internationals’ absence to work the shape. Decide whether two up top is a luxury or a plan. Get the midfield denser when we need it. Keep the internationals fit. And when we walk out on 9 October, look like a side that spent twenty days fixing problems — not reminiscing about a point rescued at Millwall
The break will either steady us or stall us. Nuno says we cannot waste it. Neither can we.
