The football gods smiled on Julen Lopetegui last night. Whether that was for the greater good will depend upon what happens in West Ham’s next half dozen games: This could be just a temporary stay of execution or, however unlikely it may have seemed last week, a springboard back into the top half of the Premier League. Not mincing his own words, Jacob Steinberg In The Guardian wrote:” Ultimately the sense persists that West Ham are delaying the inevitable”.
Let”s not kid ourselves, the 2-1 defeat of Wolves could have finished very differently. Amongst the many flaws – and there are many – his inability (even against one of the bottom sides) to orchestrate a clean sheet is a constant and obvious coaching failure.
Konstantinos Mavropanos looked impressive for much of the game. However as is becoming a regular occurrence, those one or two moments when he switches off and ends up on the wrong side of an attacker could have caused West Ham’s downfall. Trying to recover his position, jumping with an arm across and trying to keep an opponent from leaping to head a cross went unpunished last night as it did in West Ham’s win against Newcastle.
In addition his late tackle and clumsy challenge involving treading on Jean-Ricner Bellegarde’s foot could – and probably should- have resulted in a Wolves penalty. As soon as I saw VAR reviewing it I had the sense of certainty that there would be a spot-kick. Lucky escape.
Frustratingly Mavropanos isn’t improving and just has these errors in his game. Jean Clair Todibo, if fit. should be back in the starting XI ahead of the Greek. Lopetegui has to swallow his pride, get over whatever dressing room shenanigans took place and do the right thing for the team instead of continually dividing his squad: Forcing one of his first choice defenders to train with the Under 21’s (when he only has three to choose from anyway) is not a Premier League Manager-level response.
Time for Lopetegui to get his big boy pants on, grow his coaching skills and work with his squad instead of falling out with them and try to build a secure back four for next Monday’s game against Bournemouth.
He will already have the challenge of no Emerson next week, so re-integrating Todibo into the back line is an absolute priority.
The dwarf will be having kittens . Reading the comments on here . We’re finally west ham UNITED. In our desire to force the greedy two bob shyster out of our great club once and for all .
Hoeness looks the best option but Sullivan will NEVER pay a compensation clause. Only owner in the league that says that I would think? Means you only get the pool of out of work managers or coaches. That tends to mean, coaches who are not that good or were good in the past. But the Premiership is evolving so fast each season. You either do the Brighton thing and a process and data to identify players and coaches to fit a philosophy and let a proper DOF do that or you pay for the best. Sullivan has wasted multi millions on 53 strikers and countless player punts thru his agents but wont spend 5 – 10 million to get the best coach. He is a football fvckwit, there is no other explanation. Like he never wants to pay an agent fee over a certain amount so usually uses Salthouse and Silkman and Mackay for majority of players or whenever possible.
And he supposedly didnt think full backs or wing backs should require big money, not noticing that in the modern game , wing backs are a major source of assists thru “overloads” etc.
For 14 years, nothing changes, so many discussions, threads etc lead back to the biggest barrier to progress and success. A self important, interfering, “doesnt know what he doesnt know” owner / major shareholder.
He’s the proverbial “turd you cannot flush” 🙁
Club stinks top to bottom at the moment- Sullivan and his bunch of cretins don’t give a toss about the fans – The Porn Baron needs to get out or be forced out. The great fans of this football club deserve so much better
Last night we looked just the same as last season, we rode our luck to win. However delaying the inevitable again will only lead to problems. We’ve unhappy players, many who will want out of this shit show, a manager without a clue, a defence with more holes than a colander. Come on Sullivan ,bite the bullet, sack this idiot immediately!
Everyone knows this apart from the egotistical toxic dwarf in the silly hat!
again with this “dwarf” shit. grow up, you plonker. i’m sure you’re no oil painting
Just get rid of JLo, one lucky win against a relegation bound team does not change anything. The situation with Kudus and Todibo show he has clearly lost the dressing room, the selection and tactics aren’t working and we are just delaying the inevitable by giving him more must win games. Potter is apparently happy to take it on until end of season. That seems like the right decision for Sullivan. Let’s get it done. COYI
I tend to agree but he’s had an awful lot of luck over the past few games and there’s something to be said about a lucky manager! What is constantly worrying is the amount of time’s we give away possession with no defensive midfield structure, time and again it’s scramble defense with the holding midfield player nowhere to be seen. Central defender’s making stupid and reckless challenges in the box again last night. Zouma on one leg would do better than the pairing last night! Really foolish to let Aguerd out on loan as he’s better than both of them but no one can defend the 18 yard box home and away without the odd error. The busy Christmas fixtures programme will determine if he remains or if he’s replaced.
The odds have changed this morning…
O’Neil 7/2 On
Lopetegui 9/2
Postecoglu 13/2
I can’t see any of them in place into the longer term to be frank.
Postecoglu is more likely to be sacked before Lopetegui because Tottenham have Daniel Levy who doesn’t hang about and we have “give him one more game”David Sullivan.
I’m surprised Dyche isn’t higher up the list with Freidkin and his itchy trigger finger. Roma are on their 3rd manager this season also under his ownership.
Dyche doesn’t come in until 33/1, it’s very much O’Neil, Lopetegui and Postecoglu who are short odds.
My money is still on Levy as he believes they should qualify for Champions League.
Be interesting to see if he backs Big Ange in the next transfer window if he makes it that far?
I said Sully would keep faith in JLo if we got a record amount of corners in a game 🤣🤣🤣
Too late. I took evens when everyone was saying it was a certainty. Mortgage looked safe when 3 to 1 on then more so when ‘no longer taking bets’. Worried sick now – see what you boys can do with your keyboards to pull me through this one.
Too late. I took evens when everyone was saying it was a certainty. Mortgage looked safe when 3 to 1 on then more so when ‘no longer taking bets’. Worried sick now – see what you boys can do with your keyboards to pull me through this one.
All of your blogs since last night have been negative, show some support to the players and manager instead, true supporters always do.
True supporters at Leicester were chanting
“Sacked in the morning” at Loppy or are our travelling fans not real supporters?
Our true supporters were also chanting at the game away at Leicester…..
“How shit must you be it’s only 2-0”
Then the Foxes scored to make it 3-0
How Sullivan kept faith with Lope the Dope after that Leicester game said more about our chairman than it did our coach!
I am afraid that the overall position is that our football is poor quality. Misplaced passes, poor selection of passes, an inability to keep hold of the ball when challenged by an opponent. I wish it was better, but what I have said is the stark truth.
The board is equally unimpressive and continues to underperform and underwhelm like the team on the pitch.
A progressive coach and board could instantly improve West Ham.
Clueless chairman and coach writing off what still could be a decent season with teams above in touching distance and inconsistent.
Do the right thing Sullivan, let your DoF do his job and hire the right guy instead of your ill suited choices.
The time has come to admit your mistakes, put your ego, penny pinching methods aside and rescue us from yet another below par season.
2024 has been utterly atrocious thanks to you!
I didnt see an improvement in our performance last night another lucky 3 points I feel we will stay in the bottom half of the table if we dont change managers If as a club we are happy with that fine If we want top 8 we need change That’s as clear as day
Sebastien Hoeness saved an underperforming team that lacked confidence (sounds like us) in a relegation scrap (could be us) and then totally transformed them in to playing European football (could be us)
No manager has better credentials than Hoeness. Did Sullivan say he wanted Champions League football? Aston Villa achieved it after relegation.
Sebastien Hoeness delivered this for Stuttgart (could be us). I’d be happy with just Europa League or even higher up the league challenging for these spots.
Pay Sebastien Hoeness release clause Sullivan and let Tim interview and work fully aligned with a truly progressive coach.
He has no clue that is clear to see, Bowen put it correctly he and teammate’s talk and change a bit at halftime last night. No mention of the idiot. We were lucky last night. We need a new manager now