Julen Lopetegui

Lopetegui eats humble pie at half time

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West Ham 2-1 Manchester United

West Ham clinched the three points against Manchester Utd to push the Hammers to 13th, and only two points away from eighth place currently occupied by Tottenham Hotspur.

The first 45 minutes are best forgotten, as Manchester United dominated and missed chance after chance. Fabianski returning to first team duties to replace Areola whose recent form has been questionable, was the busier of the two keepers.
At half time, Julen Lopetegui made three changes, bringing off Soler, Paqueta and Mavropanos, with Summerville, Soucek and Todibo bringing a fresh impetus to the second half.
After the game Lopetegui confirmed why he had made the changes “I was thinking that maybe we could change a few different things.  We had two players with a yellow card. We needed to win more individual fights. We needed to be more aggressive with our ball. We needed to be more dangerous in attack. They did well, but it’s all about the team, so we are happy for them.”

Summerville was the stand out performer, causing problems on the right wing, and with the addition of Danny Ings, the Hammers had a more attacking threat. Having only registered one shot in the first 45 minutes, West Ham had eleven in the second half.

Bowen shoots for West Ham against Manchester United

Bowen gets airborne as West Ham mount a second half revival

Half-time introductions make their mark

On the 74th minute their persistence was rewarded when Summerville slid in from a Ings scuffed shot. The lead though was short lived as Casimero headed home.
Yet in injury time a challenge by Matthijs de Ligts on Ings was reviewed by VAR and the referee awarded a penalty which Jarrod Bowen slotted home.
Twelve minutes of injury time ensued, yet the Hammers held firm to register three points, and only their second home win of the season.
Next up for the Hammers is Nottingham Forest away.  Crysencio Summerville surely must be at the forefront of our Head Coaches mind when he selects his first eleven for that game!

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I have been a season ticket holder since the late eighties, so experienced the highs and lows of being a West Ham supporter. I previously wrote for OLAS and have contributed to a number of football publications in the past.

10 comments

  • Peter Bendall says:

    The second half was a big improvement … lets be honest . It couldn’t have been worse !! However , as well as the subs did the main reason for the improvement was the hooking of Paqueta . He is an absolute disgrace . He is nowhere near as good as he thinks he is .. Cannot defend or tackle ,…. always likely to get sent off and gives the ball away constantly . Our best hope is he goes in January or gets banned . He is not a Hammer and shows no passion for the club GET RID ASAP > COYI

    • Ken Edridge says:

      If you had the same problem Paqueta has would you be in the right frame if mind? He’s a brilliant player, who doesn’t know what the future hold for him, give him a break.

  • Phil Baker says:

    Start with the eleven that played out the last 30 minutes and perhaps Westham can surprise Forest and play some more football . Paqueta can’t start .

  • Ray says:

    NO! Don’t forget the first half, remember every sorry second of it, and most of all remember who was responsible. Read his reasons for the changes and ask yourself why those subs were not the starters after the previous eight games. The good news is that he is not going to last, he’s clueless.

    • Ken Edridge says:

      Good comment. Agree 100%

    • Steve says:

      He is clearly not clueless as the halftime changes in personnel and tactical tweaks turned the game.

      • Hammeroo says:

        Yes he IS clueless! Maybe he isn’t actually deaf, dumb and blind though because he FINALLY put on the players that most Hammers fans would have asked for. Most of us would consider that Loppy ignores the bleedin’ obvious due possibly to sticking with his favourites at the cost of ignoring those that are in form.

  • Allan Kempson says:

    Summerville has to start against forest, he was the man of the match for me today! Anyway Paqueta’s been far past his best this season, so Summerville should replace him in the starting 11 full time really.

    • Ken Edridge says:

      Paqueta is no where near past his best. He has a big problem to face. When that is settled in his favour hopefully he will be back an even better player, by then though he will player for someone else and will miss out on his talent.

      • Wayne says:

        To be fair, Paqueta has been really poor this season and it’s very clear that his off the field issues are affecting his game.

        As for yesterday’s game, awful first half for both teams for very different reasons and well done to our manager for actually making some really positive changes that changed our game.

        One massive problem persists though, the fact that we dropped deep after scoring. Been a West Ham trait for as long as I can remember (i’m 54) and it nearly cost us.

        Still, we won and that’s a big positive.

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