“We’re In Those Shaky Moments Now” I Hammer’s Frank Admission

It would be fair to say that we’ve all seen the internal struggle going on with our team stuttering to grow into Lopetegui’s vision. West Ham have not gained a point at London Stadium and this puts huge pressure on the players and coach when expectations were so high following the appointment of a new coach and £100 million-plus splurge on players in the summer window.

Both Jarrod Bowen and Mikhail Antonio have been passing comment on The Irons’ transition in a refreshing article in Friday’s Daily Mail: The pair admit to going through all manner of challenges to play in the way the new coach demands. We as fans all seem to expect ‘change’ to come easily to our team – in reality, the message is out there loud and clear that changing the whole style of play, plus nine new recruits, means ‘change’ will be a gradual process.

Says Antonio:”Where we are right now, with the transition stage that we’re going through, learning a completely different style of football, there’s going to be shaky moments and we’re in those shaky moments now.”

Hammers number nine continued: “What we’ve learned over the last four years playing under David Moyes, he (Lopetegui) wants to play a completely different structure. We want to play more expansive, we want to keep the ball more. Because we’ve been playing a certain way for so long, learning something new is not just going to happen overnight. You can see a lot of positives in the games that we have been playing.”

Skipper Bowen admits:” As a team, you always have to go through bad times: We haven’t won as many games as we would have wanted and we’re in a disappointing phase at the minute. The expectations are so high and we have high expectations as players. We want to win every game, we know that’s not possible but I think there’s a lot more to come from this team.’

And he speaks frankly about the role he has undertaken as West Ham’s captain: “Everyone looks at you as the captain and it’s my role to lift people. Ultimately it starts on the training pitch on a Monday morning, going out and training well, being the best player in training so people look at you in that way.”

‘We’re a changing room where we want to do well, we’ve got a really good group, everyone is a captain in their own way. But for me to be the official captain is a really proud moment for me and I’m looking forward to being here for many years.’ 

Leading by example, maybe not the ‘fist pumping blood and guts’ style of some captains, but one which we hope continues to evolve and silence those doubters amongst the armchair critics who think ‘JB’ was the wrong choice. A couple of goals against Ipswich will do nicely, thanks Jarrod.