Nuno Espirito Santo has a rare weekend off to look forward to, with West Ham United not playing against Brentford until Monday evening. But as he reveals, he just can't take his eye off of the Premier League at the moment.
With West Ham now level on points with 17th-placed Nottingham Forest, and just three points behind 15th-placed Leeds, Santo's squad have performed superbly in recent weeks to drag themselves back into the race to avoid the drop - having been seven points adrift of safety just a month ago.And looking ahead to Monday's FA Cup tie in Stratford, Nuno took questions on injuries, Fulham, the standard of refereeing in the Premier League and his knowledge of the FA Cup...
Q: What's the latest injury news - any update of Pablo?
NES: He's improving a lot, so we're assessing day by day. See how it goes.
Q: Anything else?
NES: You know how it goes. For some players it was a tough game [against Fulham]. Recovering, assessing and then preparing.
Q: At the start of this year, West Ham lost 3-0 to Wolves, 2-1 to Nottingham Forest. The mood amongst the fanbase was quite negative but there's been such a big turn around. How have you turned things around?
NES: That was not me, I think it was the players. The players been able to improve our game, the results are helping so the atmosphere, the mood, like you say it's much better.
Q: Why do you think the team are dealing with setbacks better as well, because after the Chelsea game, after the Liverpool game, there's been good performances and good results after those quite big setbacks. How has the team changed that side of things?
NES: I think being able to react well, like you said. Not every time it's possible, but the bounce back from poor performance is always important, especially in the fight that we are involved in. And we saw against Fulham that the players reacted pretty well after Liverpool, achieved a good performance and a good result. So we hope it continues. But what we really consider is to avoid setbacks. So let's try to keep this this flow as long as we can.
Q: You've talked before about how the mood in the camp is always better after a win. Everyone comes in smiling. Do you almost wish you had another league game coming up next rather than the Cup? Now you're in this really good momentum.
NES: No. The FA Cup, it's always a good competition for us. We love the Cup and this is what we are here talking about. Now let's focus on the Cup. It's really, really important and is [being played] at our home [ground]. I guess it's a tough opponent, but it's the competition that we want to try and go through .
Q: You've said before that you have to just concentrate on West Ham, to concentrate on the games and take them into your own hands. Is it hard though, not to be invested in a game like last night when Tottenham are playing one of the teams that you can potentially catch? Is it hard to watch that without emotion?
NES: We see all the games, what we know is that we cannot influence anything. We just say as spectators s it doesn't mean anything for us. We're still in the same situation. We have a lot of work in front of us.
Q: You can really watch a game like that where the team is really close and kind of stay...
NES: Like I said, we watch all the games. Me personally, I watch all the games. Some of them live, some of them I watch back as much as I can, because this is our job - to try and see how our opponents are doing. What is the game doing, taking information for us.
Q: Was that one you watched live or was that one you watched this morning - the Spurs game?
NES: No, I watched some moments, then was other things going on. Look, what I see at home is not important - what I'm trying to tell to you is that we watch all the matches and we know that it's all about us. We cannot influence and we cannot control anything that happens in other stadiums. In our games we can influence them and this is our main focus.
Q: There's a lot of talk at the moment about when managers come in the middle of the season and this kind of phrase of a "new manager bounce", getting results straight away. When you came in, I think it took you four games to win your first game, but obviously now there's been a real big turn around. Is it quite hard to come in the middle of the season and just change things straight away? Does that "new manager bounce" exist, in your eyes?
NES: It's always hard to come in [during] the middle of the season because you have to, first of all, remember your priorities. Try to know as much about the players, of the team, of the club. Everything becomes harder when you have less time and more competitions and the need to change things, so it takes time. Sometimes it works faster, sometimes it takes longer but in my case I I have this experience already and I know it's hard. It's hard on every manager to try and change things just like that. It's not what happens. Things take time to click.
Q: Do you find it strange though, for example, that managers like Igor Tudor come in and it's just been a few games and people are already talking about them maybe losing their jobs? Do you do you find that strange, or is it just the world that we live in?
NES: Yeah, exactly. That is the situation that we are in. It's the world that you live in.
Q: Brentford are next.
NES: Yes.
Q: Very famously corners and throw-ins they're...
NES: Very. Yes.
Q: There's a bit of a debate at the moment around Premier League football kind of being geared towards this style of football, is that something you've noticed?
NES: Yes, it has totally changed. What's happening in set piece situations is, I'll say, almost crazy. I think they should review it. I think they should come to the clubs and speak to the players, try to really explain to them what is a foul? What is a contact? How far can you go on this context so the players are more clear on their actions? Because we are seeing things that are not normal. I consider that many of them are false.
Q: What do you think is specifically kind of a problem at the moment? Is it the amount of holding in the box? Is it the time taken over set-pieces?
NES: The contact, the holding, the grabbing, the blocks. The contact allowed to the goalkeepers so it makes a goalkeeper's life very, very difficult. Many things are happening, They are changing the history of the games. Some of them are legal, some of them are OK, but most of them go much further than what is allowed in football. I already had the chance to address this worry to Howard Webb and hopefully he was sensible enough to recognize that something is going on. It's not only me. I think this goes through all the league.
Q: Crysencio Summerville, another goal. The work which Jarrod Bowen did before it was obviously crucial as well, but with him and the international call-outs potentially at the end of the month. I don't think he's ever been in a Netherlands senior squad. Did you think he deserves that?
NES: No comment! Ask him. I see that Cry is in a very good moment and what he's doing for the team is amazing. Not only the goals and assists, but the work rate is amazing. So we are delighted with Cry and if his national team comes [calling], I hope he enjoys it.
Q: For a long time it felt here like if West Ham were to succeed, get out of trouble when in Cup competitions it was Jarrod Bowen. I wouldn't say they were a one-man team, but he was the real talisman. It now feels like you've got more than one. You've got Summerville, you've bought Disasi in who's been exceptional since he arrived in January. Do you see that now that your team is kind of expanded from being reliant on maybe just one player to now having two, three, four our players...
NES: What I can see is that this is the best thing that can happen to us, that we have a lot of options and a lot of players full of confidence, as many as possible, because football is a team effort and you know that forward players have ups and downs. They have momentum, they are full of confidence. Having as many options as we can, it's only beneficial for us. And I never considered us a one-man team. Never ever.
Q: Does it always helps someone like Jarrod Bowen that the pressure isn't always on him to score a goal, because you know Summerville can score a goal and the pressure is not always on at the back when there's a corner...
NES: When we have a corner, I'm positive that we're going to score a goal and always positive that is going to be our of our centre halves. You know what I mean!? So we expect goals from all over. This is the best thing that we have, the expectation of scoring a goal - it's really positive for us. And if this goal comes from midfielder or from a full back or a centre half, I don't really care as long as it happens.
Q: The situation regarding corners, as you mentioned just their, corners, you said...
NES: Corners and throw-ins. Brentford, I think is one of the most effective teams in terms of set pieces, it's really something that we have to assess for Monday night. They are a big threat.
Q: You described it before as "crazy", the situation inside the penalty area...
NES: Not only the penalty area, even the throw-ins. If you recall - and you've been in football long enough to remember when a throw-in was badly executed the referee came and said "look". Now we see throw-ins that are sometimes inside of the pitch, sometime the foot is raised - and you know the law of the throw-in, that you have to have both feet on the floor so it's not happening. They [the match officials] are not acknowledging that that part of the game. So that's why I have worries with the referees.
Q: Also, regarding corners especially, Liam Rosenior was saying the other day that the amount of goalkeepers now being obstructed in trying to get to the ball. So I'm asking you, because you were a top class goalkeeper, but you're also a top class coach, do you teach your players how to get right on the edge of the line of what is legal? But then wearing your goalkeeping hat, you obviously know, hang on a minute - that's really difficult for a goalkeeper, so maybe we could just push the envelope a little bit?
NES: Not long ago contact with the goalkeeper inside of the six-yard box was considered a foul. That was the law of the game. Now it has changed totally. Totally. I'm happy that I don't have to play now, because it's really hard on them! And I think honestly, it's coming from all over the league. As managaers we have a natural worryand concern about it because it's out of our hands anymore. We don't really know what is a foul, what is allowed contact. We don't really know. Does it make sense what I'm saying?
Q: Absolutely.
NES: It's a big concern and I think it should be addressed. Of course the games are more exciting, there are more goals. I think it was - I saw a stat - eighteen goals coming directly from throw-ins? We never saw that in the Premier League before.
Q: Well, that's the problem, isn't it? People going to watch the game on Monday night, Wednesday night want to see goals. Want to see entertainment. It's like if I go to cricket, I want to see sixes. If I go to see golf I want to see a hole in one.
NES: But there are laws to be considered. So what are you trying to reach? The referees are doing this because they want to favour the spectator? No. They have to see the falls. I don't know.
Q: I've seen West Ham win the FA Cup twice. Can they win it again? And what is your first recollection of the FA Cup? A little Nuno sitting at home in Portugal, what was the first final you watched? When did you first fall in love with the competition?
NES: We love the competition and we know that it's a competition to take game by game. I can only think about any kind of dream if we go through. So what we have to focus on is Monday night, a tough opponent, Brentford. Let's focus. Let's prepare. We love the FA Cup, OK? My first recollection was in the eighties, a long, long time ago. That was the only game that was transmitted in Portugal, the Final, the FA Cup at Wembley. So my first contact with the FA Cup was that - in the 1980s!
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