Newcastle’s home record is a little less tidy thanks to West Ham United’s visit on Monday night. The Hammers 2-0 victory came out of the blue but was thoroughly deserved. Julen Lopetegi, looking tired and drawn, was an animated figure on the touchline trying to inspire West Ham in a way he’d failed to achieve in his first eleven Premier League games.
The Hammers’ Head Coach was understandably tense. Seeing as the board had labelled these next two games ‘must not get Hammered’ matches and were expecting West Ham to pick up points or else, Lopetegui may have gone too far in his complaints and frustrations. He earned himself a yellow card for arguing with the fourth official which was his third such card of this season.
Having also been cautioned on the touchline in the Everton game and the Carabao Cup dèbacle against Liverpool, Lopetegui now faces the consequences and will have to sit out the Arsenal game, suspended from his dugout as are two of his playing squad members.
The Premier League have confirmed a one match touchline ban for Lopetegui meaning he will have to watch from the stands. No doubt he’d have taken that as a small price to pay for a 2-0 defeat but coming in advance of the visit of Arsenal, Lopetegui will have to try and get his message across via telephone- in view of the numbers of changes he tends to make to his team from half time onward, that is a pretty tall order.
After a morale-boosting victory against Newcastle, this one game suspension for Lopetegui could not have come at a worse time as he strives to begin the turnaround of his team’s form and results, since this is their toughest challenge in the next five games.
One on-line ‘wit’ who shall remain nameless commented that the Hammers team would perform better without the distraction of the windmilling arms and unintelligible Basque-accented instructions yelled from the side anyway.
Our record against teams like Arsenal with Lopetegui style leadership is poor, so not sure what harm it can do, from his perspective also gives an excuse as to why team loses if they do,
Unchanged team for Arsenal , but the game after , Summerville left ,Kudus CF , Bowen right ( save Antonio’s legs for late impact sub if needed ) and play the same starters again . Lopetegui is suspended and will have the high view of the game .
Alvarez is slow and a liability in disciplinary terms. So he’s no great loss, judging on last night’s midfield display.
Kudus is the conundrum. On raw ability he must find a place in the starting 11. However, that means the square pegs in round holes problem.
If he plays as a left winger, he is ineffective and nowhere near the standard of Summerville in that position, who is a natural left winger.
Kudus’ best position seems to be the right wing but Captain and team leader, Bowen, is the first name on the team sheet in that position.
So the only other option is playing Kudus in the number 10 role and hoping he can influence the game centrally. That involves tinkering with the system Lopetegui devised (or was forced into) last night, however. A system that finally bore fruit.
When Kudus returns Lopetegui will have a monumental decision to make. Let’s see how he handles the situation.
Only one solution…..
Soler…Soucek…Paqueta
Kudus..Bowen..Summerv
Antonio is the weakest link, so has to make way for Kudus, with Kudus going wide and Bowen central.
Otherwise I’d give Kudus a few games on the bench, make him fight for his place!!
Let’s not get carried away yes it was a good win but Newcastle were poor that won’t be the case against Arsenal they will come at us from the word go if we can hold them back and get a win against them then it will be a statement of intent however if they over runs us that will show that the Newcastle game was a one off and that we are not capable of challenging for Europe and will be dragged into the relegation battle
Ive started to wonder if we are a better footballing team playing team without Alvarez and Kudus in it. Surely not?
Kudus walks straight back into the side . When he returns but hopefully not at Summervilles expense .