It was a tale of two managers on Saturday, as Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea beat Julen Lopetegui’s West Ham United with ease.
Julen Lopetegui is a man under pressure right now after Chelsea beat West Ham 3-0 at the London Stadium in the early Premier League kick-off on Saturday.
David Sullivan and Karren Brady’s faces after the game told a story worth a thousand words, and Lopetegui must realise that the spotlight is shining directly on him now.
He made some bizarre decisions yesterday that certainly won’t make things any easier for him in the aftermath of the game.
The fact that he left Danny Ings on the bench for the entire match after the 32-year-old’s heroics away at Fulham last week was laughable.
People make strange decisions when under pressure – ones they wouldn’t usually make. And some of Lopetegui’s calls yesterday stunk of a man who’s feeling the heat.
The worst part for Lopetegui is that Maresca has just said something that will make the West Ham head coach feel even worse this morning.
Enzo Maresca’s brutal Julen Lopetegui putdown after Chelsea beat West Ham
Lopetegui must be waking up this morning with a shudder, thinking about yesterday’s disaster-class at the London Stadium.
He was out-thought by Maresca tactically, and that’s not good enough considering how much we’ve all been told what a master tactician he is.
However, as bad as it was yesterday, things could have been even worse.
When speaking to Chelsea’s official website after the match, Maresca discussed the manner of his side’s victory.
And the Blues boss delivered the worst Lopetegui putdown imaginable.
Maresca said, “We are improving many things, even if today we could have attacked better, we could have defended better and especially we could have managed the game much, much better. Sometimes we need to make more passes and keep the ball, and we are in a rush and want to attack immediately. But overall I think we deserved to win the game.“
Whilst Lopetegui was scratching his head on the sidelines, the Chelsea head coach was thinking to himself how he could have punished his opposing number even further still.
Can you imagine what the score would have been if Maresca’s side had attacked better?
I mean, they didn’t need to defend any better, or manage the game more intelligently, because they kept a clean sheet anyway!
Julen Lopetegui must go back to basics at West Ham
The Hammers head coach needs to improve one thing first and foremost, and that’s the way in which his team is defending as a unit.
Last season, West Ham conceded 74 Premier League goals, the worst tally out of the 17 sides that remained in the division.
However, there are two players starting for us this season who weren’t at the club last term in the form of Max Kilman and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Jean-Clair Todibo is biding his time on the bench as well.
Yet the Hammers are still shipping goals at an alarming rate, and have kept only one Premier League clean sheet this season – away at Crystal Palace when lady luck was on our side.
Lopetegui needs to drill his back four on the training ground, but I feel like we must defend better as a unit as well.
The midfielders and wingers need to hurry back into defensive positions quicker when we lose the ball both high up the pitch and when we’re in transition.
If Lopetegui can’t get his team to defend properly, this will be a long season for us, and a short spell in charge for him.
I’m hoping that the Chelsea defeat will be a sliding doors moment for West Ham and Julen Lopetegui. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the Spaniard picks the right door to walk through.
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