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West Ham manager Nuno Espirito Santo thinks Pablo’s goal against Fulham in the Carabao Cup will give the forward “a big boost of confidence.”

The 22-year-old had gone 21 games without scoring for the Hammers since his £21m move from Gil Vicente at the start of this year, but speaking after the player broke his drought, Nuno said:

“The goal was missing, so it’s going to be a big boost of confidence for him [to get his first].”

“We always look to our forward players to score, to increase [their output], and he gives us more solutions than options.”

Fans will be looking for more of the same from Pablo

While there is an appreciation for what the Portuguese forward brings to the team in terms of his work rate, it is fair to say that many were running out of patience with his lack of output.

There weren’t huge expectations when Pablo first arrived at the London Stadium, but supporters were hoping he would be a bit more prolific.

After all, the striker did find the back of the net 10 times in 14 appearances for Gil Vicente in the first half of last season.

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West Ham will have regrets about the Fulham game

The Irons were poor defensively on Tuesday night, but they still probably had enough opportunities to secure their passage through to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.

Some will argue that dropping out of the competition will allow Nuno’s men to completely focus on gaining promotion back to the Premier League.

Even so, there were lessons learned from the performance. They clearly have the firepower to trouble top-flight teams, let alone Championship sides. If Pablo can add his name to the scoresheet more often too, it will only benefit their promotion chances.

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