Julen Lopetegui only has himself to blame for £100k-a-week West Ham player’s awful form

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Julen Lopetegui only has himself to blame for one West Ham United player’s terrible form right now.

Julen Lopetegui received plenty of criticism from the West Ham fans throughout the game at Fulham on Saturday, and rightly so – he got his team selection wrong in so many ways.

That said, Lopetegui proved that he’s not afraid to change things and admit that he got it wrong from the start, with two changes at half-time, and then another three during the second-half.

And at the end of the day, we’re three points and nine goals better off than we were from the corresponding fixtures last season.

However, it is clear to see that we cannot afford to keep starting games like we have done so far this season.

We will get punished soon to a point where it’s impossible for us to come back in the second-half.

There’s one big change Lopetegui needs to make in order to make us instantly more competitive, and he has to make it for this weekend’s clash with Chelsea.

Julen Lopetegui has himself to blame for West Ham player’s form

The Spaniard obviously needs patience and time to get things right at the London Stadium.

However, he needs to start getting his decisions spot on from the start, rather than having to rely on making substitutions midway through matches.

Someone who needs to be dropped as a matter of urgency is Michail Antonio – he has been absolutely atrocious for us this season – arguably our worst player.

It was actually claimed that West Ham were prepared to sell Michail Antonio in the summer, but he remained at the London Stadium in the end.

Antonio, who earns around £100k-a-week, has started all four of our Premier League games so far this season.

He has failed to score in any of them, nor has he provided a single assist, and has been hooked on 73 minutes, 62 minutes, 71 minutes and 45 minutes.

Not good is it.

So the question has to be asked, why has Lopetegui persisted with starting the 34-year-old as his main striker?

In my opinion, he’s nowhere near the levels required to be a consistent starter in the Premier League for West Ham.

Now, the onus is on Lopetegui to drop Antonio for our clash with Chelsea on Saturday.

Lopetegui must be ruthless with Antonio

The Jamaica international hasn’t been anywhere near the standards we need to really make some genuine progress.

With Niclas Fullkrug out injured, the Spaniard should have started with Jarrod Bowen through the middle for the Fulham game.

And now after Danny Ings scored a last-minute equaliser for us, Antonio has surely dropped down the centre-forward pecking order even further still.

The thing that angers me most about Lopetegui starting Antonio in every single one of our Premier League games so far this season is the fact that the 34-year-old has clearly become complacent.

The way that he was strolling around the pitch against Fulham made me incredibly frustrated.

He needs to be made aware that he needs to fight hard for the shirt, and that his place in the side is far from guaranteed.

I personally think that he should be sold in January, but if Julen Lopetegui is intent on keeping Antonio at West Ham, the Spaniard needs to make it clear to him that he has to work hard to even get into the match-day squads.