West Ham released the customary ‘inside Rush Green’ training video yesterday so that those of us who spend hours watching all the media content can take a look. Lopetegui’s strategy from earliest days looked well-rehearsed yesterday: You can take a look at the video and see for yourself.
The diagonal ball out of defence appeared to be high on the list of skills to be practised yesterday along with the high winger to receive. Frequent long diagonals were sent – you can see Max Kilman picking out Wan-Bissaka then Vlad Coufal with the crossing by both being another area receiving attention.
So, perhaps more ‘Lopetegui-long ball’ on Saturday as a means of transitioning out of defence.
The link to the video is here: Missing is one Tomas Soucek – not normally a yellow flag as others who’ve not featured in the midweek training videos have a habit of popping up in the match day squad – but something to keep an eye on nonetheless.
Not featured in the video but gaining interest – it’s gone viral – is Mohammed Kudus’ moment of magic that has us all smiling at his genius and wishing he was starting this weekend.
Posted on the official West Ham Twitter page, you can watch the ‘dink’ here: Reminds me of Paolo Di Canio in his heyday but sometimes only Di Canio was brave (or daft) enough to repeat it on a match day!