Tony Cascarino thinks there’s unrest between Julen Lopetegui and star players at West Ham after what he saw.
It’s fair to say Julen Lopetegui has raised eyebrows and plenty of question marks so far at West Ham.
After a massive overhaul in which nine new players arrived and 12 departed, nobody was expecting Lopetegui to work miracles overnight in east London.
Especially as he looks to change West Ham’s style of play to something more pleasing on the eye.
There has been little sign of major progress on that front.
And what hasn’t been pleasing on the eye is West Ham’s results.
It is now just one Premier League win from Lopetegui’s first six games after the 1-1 draw at Brentford on Saturday.
While a point away from home is more often a good result for any West Ham team, Brentford were missing eight players.
The Bees had two centre-backs at full-back too.
Meanwhile Lopetegui had a fully fit Hammers squad to choose from bar Niclas Fullkrug – who had not started any of West Ham’s league games before his injury.
West Ham’s new head coach has bemused supporters with some of his team selections and substitutions.
He was jeered after subbing off West Ham’s best player Crysencio Summerville in the defeat to Chelsea.
The Dutchman has impressed fans so far. But he was dropped for the game at Brentford.
Then Lopetegui subbed off West Ham’s brightest player for a second week running when he brought Mohammed Kudus off at half-time.
The Hammers boss has confirmed he subbed Kudus for tactical reasons.
In the second half he also withdrew, justifiably, Lucas Paqueta. The Brazilian was not happy, shaking his head at the manager as he slowly walked off the pitch.
The last of West Ham’s Holy Trinity, captain Jarrod Bowen, was also subbed towards the end of the game – not for the first time this season.
On the one hand the manager is clearly not afraid to upset big names or make substitutions early.
But it all suggests he doesn’t know his best team and that he’s failing to get the most of of certain players.
Now one pundit believes all is not well in the dressing room.
Tony Cascarino thinks there’s unrest between Lopetegui and star players at West Ham after what he saw.
The former striker was at the Gtech on Saturday to watch West Ham’s clash with Brentford.
Cascarino believes West Ham are regressing under Lopetegui. Because he sees no discernible improvement to the style of play and feels the team are weaker on attacking set-pieces.
He also thinks there may be issues between the head coach and star names like Paqueta and Bowen.
“West Ham United remind me of politicians, and not in a good way,” Cascarino said in The Times.
“The word that winds me up most of all in politics is “change” — it’s so easy to promise it, but it hardly ever comes. I feel that way about this supposed “new” West Ham.
“The idea behind replacing David Moyes as manager was that the club were going to deliver this new attacking style. But I was struggling to see under Julen Lopetegui what was different, apart from the fact they’ve spent a lot of money on new players.
“If anything, I thought they looked like the loss of Moyes had set them backwards a little bit. Some of the set pieces were really poor, and I found myself wondering why they had got rid of James Ward-Prowse, who guarantees good delivery.
“I think there is a problem with Lucas Paqueta at the moment, because he was really subdued, and the West Ham fans didn’t seem too happy with his performance. I didn’t really like the fact Lopetegui took off his captain Jarrod Bowen either.”
Cascarino also noted that he felt the best player on the pitch was Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo.
Hammers News recently called on West Ham to go for Mbeumo as their eventual replacement for Kudus.
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