If West Ham head coach Julen Lopetegui isn’t under pressure after that Halloween horror show against Nottingham Forest, he should be.
The Hammers looked like a team of strangers playing in a completely unfamiliar formation, raising questions about whether the Spaniard’s tactics have improved since the start of the season.
West Ham appears to be shifting from one tactical setup to another with no clear identity or playing style. There’s a recurring need to rescue games with half-time switches, and a lack of discipline seems to permeate the entire squad.
Before West Ham’s 3-0 humbling at the hands of Nottingham Forest, Lopetegui praised his opposite number Nuno Espírito Santo’s clear and concise tactics as the foundation for their lofty Premier League position. His comments seemed to indicate an appreciation for straightforward instruction, so one has to wonder why he opted for yet another formation with a line-up of players who had never played together before.
The real cherry on top, however, was deploying the front three—Lucas Paqueta, Jarrod Bowen, and Crysencio Summerville—in unfamiliar positions, squandering any potential advantage from having a more stable defence behind them.
Lopetegui is very fortunate that his first-half tactics against Manchester United didn’t lead to a loss. Without that VAR-assisted win sandwiched between humiliating defeats to Tottenham and Forest, he’d be leading the Premier League sack race.
So much for your earlier blog….’We all need to calm down about our club..’
That aged well! lol
Gonzo didn’t write that
Apologies..you’re quite right ..it was from Dan Hill…but appeared under Gonzo’s moniker.
JLo keeps saying how the players need time to adjust to the new style of playing and then changes formation and tactics, slowing the learning process for learning the new style. Nonsense management. Second time we’ve plated 5 at the back, second time we’ve been stuffed. I doubt he has learned from this.
All that said, we need to look at the players he has which means a serious review of Steidten’s purchases. He isn’t the man with the Midas touch, that’s for sure.
Mavropanos is not a top 10 EPL player.
Alvarez’s temperament is plain awful.
Solver, good footballer but not an EPL player.
Ditto Rodriguez.
With Paqueta’s mind elsewhere, that leaves our first choice midfielder (imo, that is) as Tomas. Now I love Soucek as an honest, hardworking, brave player but first choice he shouldn’t be.
Then there is Guihaime. So much money for a youngster that impacted on our whole summer budget.
So Wan Bissaka, Tobido, Summerville, Kilman (JLos choice) are positive signings. Fulkrug, who knows.
So we have a midfield that is not good enough and still seek a striker. Spending money on Guilherme (at this stage, at least) denied us the funds to buy a younger, faster midfielder which we desperately need. Steidten needs to pull his finger out if he’s given another chance.
I honestly think that the players selected today all played below expectations. Why did Summerville give the ball away for the first goal, why did Todibo give away free kick which led to second goal, then give the ball away for the third. And why did the other lot/suicide squad decide to get yellow/red carded, or completely ruin the game by just not being up for a game in the premiership, maybe they ain’t good enough. Big calls for sacking the boss , but a lot of these new signings ain’t premiership savvy
Much against my better judgement I am coming to the conclusion relegation wouldnt be a bad idea.That way perhaps the complete shamble that is West Ham could be completely overhauled from top to bottom.How do teams like Brighton,Bournemouth,Fulham,Brentford,oh ,,and Notts Forest become reasonably successful on a limited budget and we spend millions and look where we are! We need someone who can build a TEAM!
No such team as Notts Forest, do you mean the mighty Nottingham Forest that just destroyed you 🤣🤣🤣
Endless line of ****e managers, just waiting for news to filter out from ‘top sources’ that the manager is safe and Sullivans stooges can give us all a ‘reality check’ …pathetic
Seriously….these well-payed players should be able to handle changing circumstances and positions.
They are not illiterate football players who are clueless about making a good pass and moving to give options to those with the ball so stop protecting them from their responsibility when on the pitch!!
He picks a starting eleven like an under 17s manager that is waiting to see who turns up. Despite the second half last week he changed the formation and tactics. If you play wing backs they need to be able to cross a ball. Instead we had Paqueta playing inside right and Summerville inside left and neither knew what they should be doing. Bowen had no chance through the middle. With that formation play Paqueta as a ten and Bowen and Summerville as your front men with pace and movement and give them balls on the ground to run on to. He has at least achieved the unbelievable. It took 18 months of Moyes to make me dread watching West Ham. Lopetegui has done it in 18 weeks. Sullivan won’t pay to get rid though so start hoping there are somehow 3 worse teams
That win against Man Utd got him out of trouble. But in reality we should have been 4-0 down at half time in that one. Huge slice of luck with that and the penalty awarded to us.
Surely pressure is on if were this shambolic against Everton next week.
Can’t see him being sacked anytime soon though. He was Sullivan’s choice and he won’t want to climb down and admit he got it wrong will he?
There is a lack of discipline. Alvarez has been picking up too many cards for a long time, it’s not a new thing today. Kudus pushed two Spurs players in the face not just one when you cannot do that at all. We’ve had players dismissed in two of the last three games.
The main issue though is that we concede too many goals. Both things need to stop.
And we were told to calm down !!!!!!
This is weird – he seems to pick his team every week like a bingo caller and he thinks tactics are little mint sweets. Getting seriously fed up with this, my missus could pick a better team and it’s wearing very thin that we are getting thrashed every week.
Gonzo
You are not wrong. With the fixtures to come, we look like we might well be very close to the bottom three before long.
Mr Potter is still available. Just saying.
After watching MOTD last night I have to say this looks like terminal decline to me.
We were lucky to avoid another five or six goal rout and the present manager will NOT get us out of the @@@@.
If you are happy to accept relegation just ignore this warning.
And no. The return of that moron Moyes is not the answer either..