West Ham United finally have momentum after consecutive Championship victories, but Nuno Espírito Santo now faces a different problem. Tuesday’s trip to Bolton Wanderers begins a punishing sequence which could make rotation unavoidable, particularly after signs of fatigue emerged during Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Derby County.
West Ham only played Derby on Saturday afternoon before travelling to Bolton for an 8pm kick-off on Tuesday.
There is barely any recovery time afterwards.
The Hammers host Wrexham at London Stadium at 8pm on Friday, before Fulham visit for the Carabao Cup third round the following Tuesday. West Ham’s official fixture information therefore gives Nuno four matches across just 11 calendar days.
Something will have to give.
Nuno has already warned about West Ham schedule
Nuno acknowledged the problem immediately after beating Derby.
Speaking to Sky Sports, the West Ham boss described it as a “very tight schedule”, with games arriving on Tuesday and Friday.
Saturday itself provided evidence of why that matters.
West Ham started strongly and led through Joël Piroe after six minutes, but their intensity noticeably dropped as the second half developed. Sky Sports reported that the pressing lost energy around the hour mark and Derby briefly began to threaten an equaliser.
It took two substitutes to put the game beyond doubt.
Edvin Austbø scored West Ham’s second before Mohamadou Kanté added the third, leading Nuno to praise the energy supplied by his bench.
That depth could become particularly important at Bolton.
Austbø leads West Ham rotation options
The obvious candidate for promotion into the XI is Austbø.
West Ham’s £10m Deadline Day signing scored and assisted against Derby despite starting on the bench, and we have already examined why Austbø has handed Nuno a major selection decision.
Our West Ham predicted XI against Bolton subsequently backed the Norwegian to replace Manor Solomon and make his first start.
He is unlikely to be the only player under consideration.
Kyle Walker-Peters remained on the bench against Derby after Joël Veltman started at right-back. With Veltman now 34 and another match following only three days after Bolton, swapping the pair would make sense.
Deadline Day arrival Morato also provides another senior centre-back option. The Brazilian was among Saturday’s substitutes after arriving from Nottingham Forest and could allow Nuno to manage the workloads of Max Kilman or Konstantinos Mavropanos.
Kanté, Adama Boiro and Luis Guilherme Orford offer further possibilities deeper into the squad.
The key is rotating without destroying the rhythm West Ham have finally established.
Bolton starts crucial four-game West Ham run
Nuno cannot simply treat Tuesday as an opportunity to rest everyone.
West Ham head to Bolton looking for their first away Championship victory and remain only two points behind the automatic promotion places after their improved run.
Our analysis of the West Ham away record highlighted that their wait for an away league victory now stretches back to March.
Bolton are therefore a fixture West Ham will expect to attack.
But Friday’s Wrexham game arrives only 72 hours later, while the Carabao Cup tie against Fulham follows on September 15. West Ham then travel to Millwall four days after that.
This is exactly why the summer rebuild was supposed to provide greater depth.
Nuno cannot rely upon the same 11 players through every match.
Saturday offered perhaps the most encouraging evidence yet that he does not need to.
Austbø and Kanté came from the bench and turned a potentially uncomfortable 1-0 victory into a convincing 3-0 scoreline.
At Bolton, some of those substitutes may now be required from the beginning.
