West Ham United drew 1-1 with Brentford on Saturday, and Julen Lopetegui was not happy one little bit with something that happened during the game.
All credit to Julen Lopetegui, he made big changes to his West Ham team at half-time, including the bold decision to bring off Mohammed Kudus.
That said, Lopetegui proved that he was actually happy with the point by taking Jarrod Bowen off late in the game and replacing him with the defensive minded Andy Irving.
Things started really badly for West Ham when Bryan Mbeumo put the Bees 1-0 up after just 40 seconds.
With all the pre-game talk about the need for a fast start from the Hammers, that really was a gutting blow for us.
However, the boys fought back well in the second-half to earn a point in the end.
Lopetegui wasn’t satisfied after the game though…
Julen Lopetegui says West Ham players gave him a bad surprise
The Hammers left Brentford with a point in the end.
Without context, it actually wasn’t a bad result, but a win was what West Ham really needed.
Had the Hammers players been sharper from the start, we may well have won the match.
Lopetegui spoke to WHUFC.com after the game, and criticised his players for not being switched on when Brentford scored inside the first minute.
The Spaniard said, “This is the first match at home that they didn’t win, so I think that we have to highlight above all the reaction of the team after a very bad start. It was a nightmare to start losing in the first minute.“
“We knew that [they would start fast] as we showed them images of the two goals that they had scored [in the first minute against Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur in their previous two matches], but sometimes, despite you doing that, it can happen and it was a bad surprise for us.“
The Hammers players obviously didn’t heed the warnings from Lopetegui and his staff before the game.
Tomas Soucek actually spoke out after the game, and said that he and his teammates should be embarrassed having conceded so early against the Bees.
Only way is up for West Ham but big improvements needed
Over the next month or so, we need to see big improvements from the players.
I would love to see more cohesion in our play in transition, and the players really need to start operating with a quicker tempo.
The defending needs to improve massively, but I think that will come when Jean-Clair Todibo is fully fit.
Julen Lopetegui needs to find his best West Ham United starting XI and settle on it. There has been far too much chopping and changing from him already this season.
Whilst the pressure is firmly on Lopetegui, the onus really should be on the players to turn things around.
They quite simply haven’t been good enough so far this season, and conceding inside the first minute of the match against Brentford was evidence that they weren’t switched on from the first whistle.
Big improvements are needed, that’s for sure.
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