West Ham United drew 1-1 with Fulham at Craven Cottage in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.
Julen Lopetegui received plenty of criticism from the West Ham fans throughout the game, and rightly so – he got his team selection wrong in so many ways.
In the end though, the Hammers earned a valuable point, and that means it’s a return of four points from our opening four Premier League games.
That said, some of Lopetegui’s decisions still need to be questioned. Tomas Soucek was hooked at half-time, and many people are asking why Julen Lopetegui started the Czech midfielder for West Ham in the first place?
The Spaniard absolutely must start getting his starting lineup spot on starting with this weekend’s clash with Chelsea.
If he doesn’t, I will start to worry.
For the here and now though, another concerning bit of information has emerged about the Hammers.
What reporter noticed about West Ham warm-up before Premier League Fulham clash
Despite the awful performance in the first-half, the Hammers players managed to take a point away with them from Craven Cottage on Saturday.
The overall display was really concerning though. Fulham were miles better than us on the day, and we just looked painfully disjointed all over the pitch.
The Athletic journalist Roshane Thomas was at Craven Cottage for our Premier League clash with Fulham on Saturday.
And he noticed something very interesting indeed about the West Ham player’s pre-game warmup:
“There was more intensity in their warm-up than in their first and second-half performance“, Thomas said.
Well, it’s good that our warm-up was so intense – something that never seemed to happen when David Moyes was in charge.
However, the fact that the players failed to translate that intensity onto the pitch is a real concern.
Lopetegui needs time but the players must raise their levels
I think we can all agree that we as fans need to be patient with Lopetegui.
The Hammers head coach needs time for his ideas and footballing philosophy to bed in at the London Stadium.
Positive change never happens overnight, and we all have to be prepared to back the Spaniard for at least the full season, before judging him.
However, that doesn’t mean that he’s immune from criticism. His starting XI was completely wrong once again on Saturday.
The same players are letting him down time and time again, namely Michail Antonio and Tomas Soucek.
If they don’t raise their levels, they won’t be anywhere near the starting lineup again. Our other starters need to improve massively as well.
Jarrod Bowen, Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta all need to do more. All three players are world-class when they’re at their best.
Sure, Julen Lopetegui needs time at West Ham, but it’s down to the players to ensure that he’s given the patience that he requires and deserves.
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