West Ham head coach Julen Lopetegui has shown real courage by demanding the club buy a new striker in January. It’s a bold move from a manager under pressure, clearly fighting back against the narrative that he is solely to blame for the club’s failures.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still undecided on the merits and quality of the Spaniard, who was far from my first choice to replace David Moyes. However, I do feel that he has been on the receiving end of media leaks that, at best, seek to distance Tim Steidten from Lopetegui’s appointment and, at worst, undermine him.
Therefore, I have a grudging admiration for Lopetegui, who is clearly fighting back, albeit from a weak position.
Steidten has held a near-messiah-like position at West Ham since his arrival, and the club was absolutely right to adopt a more continental approach with his appointment. He has been rightly praised for his involvement in transfers that have succeeded, so it’s only fair that any failures are criticised as well.
It would be fair to say that Niclas Füllkrug was a transfer pushed through by Steidten, and most agree that Lopetegui did not choose him to lead the line at West Ham. Considering the public criticism the Irons’ gaffer has faced in the media, I don’t blame him one bit for demanding a new striker.
Steidten’s allies in the media have sought to separate the German from Lopetegui’s appointment, so it’s hard to blame Lopetegui for wanting to distance himself from a striker signing that supposedly wasn’t his choice.
Of course, none of this is particularly healthy for the club, with the two men in charge of football affairs playing a media game of chess. However, Lopetegui is correct in asserting that the Hammers can’t rely on Michail Antonio to lead the line all season.
While Lopetegui is responsible for the poor performances and results this season, if the squad is imbalanced, that fault lies with Steidten and the Hammers board.
Lopetegui has had multiple opportunities to adjust his selections but has failed to show that he has any idea what might make a difference. If he had, he would have done it by now. Some players struggle to get game time while others start week after week no matter how bad they play. I think Areola is suffering from the same reaction as Kudus and it all comes down to trusting the leader. Paqueta plays because of who he was not who he is. At some point we will see Bowen criticized for not scoring goals, which is not easy when, like Alvarez, you are having to spend half the game compensating for others.
Dead man walking IMO
JLo couldn’t pick his nose ffs 🤦♂️
When oh when are you going to sort out your comments site on chronological order PLEASE.
“if the squad is imbalanced, that fault lies with Steidten and the Hammers board.”
Do Steidten and the Hammers board select the starting line-up with players out of their best position? No. And they have nothing to do with not selecting the players who are best in said positions. I’m talking about Kudus and Summerville in particular.
Paqueta has been well out of form for a while now and when he does play he inevitable loses the ball or gives it away and it often leads to the opposition scoring. That’s down to Loppy too.
And why does Loppy select Antonio to start after he has just returned from a long flight on his return from playing for Jamaica?
And what’s up with Areola in goal lately? He certainly seems to have lost form for some reason.
Totally agree!
The Chelsea game was horrific due to JLo’s team selection and the way he set up the team. Summerville was the only positive and he got hooked off?! 🤷♂️
Dropping Alvarez against Spurs but playing Antonio after the international break?! 🤷♂️
Kudus and Alvarez are essential to us moving up the table but JLo seems to have issues with both IMO.
The Manager is meant to inspire confidence but he seems to be eroding the confidence of the players. You might have a point with Areola.
We are clearly heading for serious clash between coach and technical director. Sound familiar!!
Probably because both managers Moyes & JLo are very similar and we are getting the same results! Would you rather we had Sully responsible for transfers like the 50 failed strikers before Tin?
It’s early days but I fear this coach hasn’t got the tactical nouse or the coaching ability to get these undoubtedly quality players playing to their full potential. The midfield needs to be sorted urgently otherwise we could have Messi as the No. 9 and we’d still be getting beaten.
We need young mobile players in midfield. Such a shame we loaned out Earthy & Potts as surely they couldn’t be any worse than Rodriguez.
If we are talking about Tim’s friends in the media can we then assume C&H are Sully’s friends as there is no mention of him in this article? #justsaying
Us? We’re billy no-mates – with no ‘friends’ as you suggest 😉
I was trying to be objective and state there are two ways of looking at it.
A very balanced article which I fully agree with. We ended up with Füllkrug after Aston Villa had played games with us all summer over Duran and people started to get desperate. And we had to have a new top striker.
No mention of Moyes or Sully is not balanced.
The blame lies firmly with Moyes and Sully!
Moyes wanted a small squad which was one of the oldest. It was unbalanced and needed upgrading in so many areas.
C&H taking aim at Tim again worries me. Fulkrug so far looks a bad move. However, I’m sure there were striker targets that were higher up on our list of targets.
Duran and the Spanish striker that left Athletico Madrid and then my choice Jonathan David. Despite being in charge of recruitment, Sully has to approve and release the funds.
Admiration even if it is grudgingly is misplaced in JLo. Sully made a massive mistake hiring him. His team selections, tactics, man management and negative persona are all on him!
Tim wanted Forfana as the young dynamic refresh we needed during Moyes reign. We could’ve got him but ended up with Kalvin Phillips. JLo obviously wanted Guido Rodriguez. These old school managers are all the same, JLo, Moyes and Allardyce. They play boring negative football.
Sully appointed all three of them! After the squad Moyes left behind we were always going to need a few transfer windows to rectify the Moyes era.
We needed a progressive younger and dynamic manager. Can C&H stop pointing the finger at Tim to deflect the blame from the real perpetrators of the mess we find ourselves in.
I disagree with you Gonzo. You have in mind that Steidten pushed Fulkrug on WH when it was clear that he was pushing for Duran.
It was only due to our ‘penny wise’ Chairman that wouldn’t allow the £40m fee for an ‘unproven’ striker that Steidten had to find a cheaper alternative that could hit the ground running.
The injury he suffered was not Steidten’s fault. It’s one of those thangs that happens to us but, the ‘wisdom’ of our Chairman is what has held us back from having a viable alternative to 34 years old Antonio…
I’m with you 100%. Shame C&H ignore the elephant in the room.
The problem with recruitment goes back a few transfer windows. We should never have been in the situation of needing to bring in so many players last window. That was amateurish mismanagement of recruitment whoever was responsible and something which was not Lopetegui’s fault. Whoever became manager needed to deal with that. Given the number brought in there was always going to be at least one someone who did not hit the ground running, that’s turning out to be Fullkrug but was always going to be somebody. Perhaps we’re lucky that it’s not more than one player.
It’s not just one player. Guido Rodriguez looks an expensive error as a free transfer