The pressure is on Julen Lopetegui following yesterday’s debacle against Chelsea. Not a single fan who was at the London Stadium was in any doubt that this was a disorganised, shambolic performance by – arguably – ten of our best eleven starters. So whilst nobody can really call for massive changes to the side that was selected it is clear that the Head Coach has to take action.
Claret and Hugh’s associate editor Sean Whetstone contacted our highly placed source at the club – (who will no doubt have been as feeling as bruised and battered as we were watching that game yesterday), regarding Lopetegui’s response to the criticism.
The reply to Sean is pretty straightforward and doesn’t pull any punches.:
He [Lopetegui] knows things have to improve and he assures [the club] they will .
Sadly not a single player played to their true potential yesterday’.
The assurance is an admission that there needs to be urgent change. The reason not a single player played to their true potential is largely because they either didn’t understand or couldn’t work with the ‘three at the back, two wing backs all high up the pitch system’ against a fast- paced mobile Chelsea front line.
I don’t expect Lopetegui or the ‘highly placed source’ to come out and admit that the tactic was just the ‘wrong’ solution to Chelsea’s threat: It was like watching electronic chess between a state of the art 2024 Apple Mac and some Atari system out of the 1980’s.
I’d actually take issue with the ‘not a single player’ part: The front three were not really at fault in the first half and in fact, looked fast and full of running until Lopetegui took Summerville off.
Some would no doubt frame it as ‘Lopetegui tries to shift some of the blame onto the players’.
‘Things’ have to improve – starting with ‘that’ Carabao Cup fixture away on Wednesday. Another mountain to climb.