West Ham are in a relegation scrap – but the issue is they aren’t scrapping.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side were not just beaten by Brentford on Monday – they were outfought. The Hammers lost nearly 60 per cent of the duels and had less than 20 per cent of the chances.

That was also shown in the stands, with empty seats dotted everywhere around the London Stadium due to a boycott against the running of the club. It created a hollow atmosphere, which worsened due to the performance on the pitch.

Nobody representing in claret and blue was up for the fight.

The 2-0 loss to Brentford was Nuno’s first home game in charge and West Ham’s new boss is keen not to judge them off one game. However, the problems on show on Monday night have been evident all season.

“Shocking, and they’ve been shocking for a while. I can’t think of a less athletic team I’ve seen for a very, very long time in the Premier League,” said Jamie Carragher on Monday Night Football. “It’s one of the slowest teams I’ve seen in Premier League football.

“West Ham, with that squad of players, no matter who the manager is, were always going to have a problem because I don’t think they can cope physically.”

The numbers back that up. This season, West Ham rank second-bottom for distance covered in the Premier League. Only Chelsea have covered less ground, but the Blues have the second-highest possession percentage in the division. They don’t need to set high distance numbers because they are in control of the ball in the right areas.

West Ham have the fifth-lowest possession but aren’t covering the ground off-the-ball. Their sprinting, speed and high intensity numbers are all in the bottom three – while the only running metric in which West Ham rank highly in is distance walking.

And even Nuno cannot hide from the argument that his team are not physically able to cover a 90-minute game. The West Ham boss recognised his team’s inability to do well in the first 20 minutes against Brentford, but then dip away from competitiveness.

“It alarms everybody. It’s there to see,” he told Sky Sports News from West Ham’s training ground on Wednesday, 48 hours ahead of their next game away at Leeds, live on Sky Sports.

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“The team has to be able to sustain the game longer, having more consistent performances.

“I can share with you one simple detail: our throw-ins. As silly as it looks, at a throw-in that is ours and we lose the ball, we take one minute 30 seconds or two minutes to recover. We have to look at that.

“We still don’t have a clear idea. We started well [against Brentford] but were not able to sustain it. So we don’t have it.”

The more you look at West Ham’s numbers, the bleaker the situation gets. If the Hammers manage to work hard enough to get into a duel, they do not get on top.

Only Aston Villa have a lower ground duel success rate than West Ham this season, while the Hammers have lost the most duels in the air all term and won the fewest number of tackles.

It then results in West Ham being dominated all over the park. The pressure on their goal is unsustainable.

They have conceded the highest-quality chances on target in the Premier League this season – against Brentford, they allowed 22 shots and all but two of them came from inside the penalty area.

Opposition sides have so much joy against West Ham the Hammers have conceded the most corners in the league. They could take a leaf out of Leeds’ book, with Daniel Farke’s side conceding the least.

So no wonder West Ham have the worst defensive set-piece record in the division, with eight goals conceded from dead-ball scenarios. The pressure on their goal is too much.

“We conceded set pieces, a lot of them – too much,” added Nuno on Wednesday about the Brentford display. “We defended them quite well – we are improving at that aspect of the game. But we have to improve at not conceding them. Some of them are easy situations that we can solve.”

And all this domination from opponents means there is not enough for West Ham to work with at the other end of the pitch. Only Burnley have had fewer shots, while only just seven per cent of their open-play chances created are classified as ‘big chances’. It’s even lower than bottom side Wolves.

To change the narrative around West Ham, Nuno has not called for his team to adopt a new playing style – but to create a new type of player, as the currently crop is not up to scratch in terms of work ethic or quality.

“The moment you realise you have a problem, the priority is now really trying to connect with the players, take the best of them,” the new Hammers boss said.

“It’s about looking at them individually and going: can we make a different type of player? Improve them and there are a lot of things to be made in that aspect. Then it comes as a team – how can we compete?”

Completely changing the West Ham players’ attitudes could help lift the club, not just up the table but also with the mood around the fanbase – especially at a dire London Stadium.

“What is the engine of the club?” asks Nuno. “It’s the team. Everything goes around the team.”

But the engine is faulty. It’s chugging towards a standstill. And if urgent repairs aren’t done, then forget a relegation scrap, West Ham will be going onto the scrap heap.

Watch West Ham’s next game away to newly-promoted Leeds live on Sky Sports’ Friday Night Football this week, kick-off at 8pm