West Ham United drew 1-1 with Bournemouth on Monday night, and Julen Lopetegui is surely still under intense pressure.
Before the game, it was claimed that Julen Lopetegui would be given some leeway from the owners due to Bournemouth’s quality.
What a bizarre way that is for the West Ham board to act – it just reeks of a lack of ambition.
Lopetegui has made some baffling selection decisions since taking over at the London Stadium, and his tactics have been highly questionable as well.
An example of this was how he utilised Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta on the wrong sides of the pitch against Bournemouth.
There were no noticeable patterns of play on display from the Hammers against the Cherries and it seems like our system relies very much on luck and the likes of Kudus and Jarrod Bowen.
In my opinion, there are a lot of things to be concerned about right now if you’re a Hammers fan.
5 takeaways from Bournemouth vs West Ham draw
All is quite clearly not well at the London Stadium right now.
There is in-fighting behind the scenes with numerous different players clearly not happy, and the standard of football has not improved one little bit since Lopetegui took over.
Whilst some fans praised the work ethic of the players last night, I think that should just be a given.
It was a poor performance overall – one that lacked any kind of direction.
Here are five takeaways from Hammers News after the 1-1 draw with Bournemouth…
Square pegs in round holes
I’m getting pretty tired of Lopetegui utilising players in the wrong positions. It was the case with four players during our draw with Bournemouth. Aaron Wan-Bissaka started in the left-back role, whilst Kudus was out wide on the left, with Bowen through the middle and Paqueta in the right wing role. The annoying thing is that it would have been easy to avoid that. Kudus could have played in the number 10 role, with Bowen on the right and Paqueta on the left. Then Niclas Fullkrug or Danny Ings could have been used as the main striker. Wan-Bissaka should have started at right-back, with Ollie Scarles slotting in at left-back. It really is quite simple – use players in their best positions in order to get results.
No central midfield
This is one of my biggest concerns about the team right now. We are so wide open in the middle of the park. Edson Alvarez has been in really poor form this season, and Lopetegui clearly doesn’t know his best combination of central midfielders. The fact that we didn’t sign a powerful, ball-carrying central midfielder in the summer still annoys me. How was such a glaring deficiency missed by Lopetegui and Tim Steidten? We’re paying the price for the poor recruitment in the summer now and going forward, our central midfield department is something that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
No striker
This section involves two separate problems. Firstly, when Bowen plays through the middle, we lose his quality out wide on the right, and his skillset isn’t suited to playing as a centre-forward. Secondly, when Lopetegui switched things up and brought Niclas Fullkrug on, it was painfully obvious to see just how far off the pace the German is. The 31-year-old was a poor signing from the start. West Ham were crying out for explosive pace through the middle and Lopetegui and Steidten brought in an ageing forward with zero pace and no experience of playing Premier League football. The striker issue absolutely must be addressed this winter.
West Ham need to sign 2 centre-backs
So Jean-Clair Todibo missed out once again on Monday night, this time because of a ‘bad toe’. Believe that and you’ll believe anything! His replacement – Konstantinos Mavropanos, is just a disaster waiting to happen…every single time he steps on the pitch. It’s extremely frustrating because the 27-year-old seems to play well for large periods of the game, but then can’t help himself from making a catastrophic error. His clumsy challenge on the edge of the box led to Bournemouth’s free-kick that they subsequently scored from. I have no idea what’s happening with Todibo, whilst Mavropanos just isn’t good enough. Two new centre-backs are needed in January.
Two right backs on…at right back
Now, I was fine with Wan-Bissaka playing as a left-back and Vladimir Coufal in the right-back position. However, when Lopetegui switched things up in the 75th minute, I was scratching my head. He brought on Ollie Scarles and moved him straight to the left-back role. Coufal remained in his right-back position, with Wan-Bissaka sitting just in front of him. Surely Scarles should have replaced Coufal, then Wan-Bissaka could have played in his preferred right-back position. It was a baffling decision from Lopetegui, and it reeked of a man who is feeling the pressure.
West Ham draw with Bournemouth proved 2 things must be done
There are a lot of things that Julen Lopetegui needs to address after West Ham’s draw with Bournemouth.
I didn’t notice any discernible improvements if I’m being honest. It was just more of the same.
I don’t see West Ham going anywhere with Julen Lopetegui at the helm, and I firmly believe he’ll be gone by the new year.
The Hammers board absolutely must sack the Spaniard in order to save the season.
In addition to that, four new signings are required in January – a pacy striker, a highly energetic and powerful central midfielder and two top-class centre-backs.
If the West Ham owners can get those signings right, and they pull the trigger on Lopetegui by sacking him, we’ll be in a better place going forward.
As long as the board bring in the correct replacement for the Spaniard of course!
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