West Ham head coach Julen Lopetegui is coming under mounting pressure following the Hammers’ 4-1 derby loss to Tottenham yesterday.
It’s the sort of pressure that nobody expected the Spaniard to face so early in his West Ham reign. But Lopetegui is no longer the new kid on the block as he enters his fifth month in charge at The London Stadium, and excuses are beginning to run out.
Personally, I was in no rush to judge the former Real Madrid manager early in his Hammers career and always thought it would be unfair to assess him before November. Unfortunately, we are nearly there, and as fans, we would hope to be seeing some signs of improvement by now.
Of course, there was a brief uplift following the Premier League win against Ipswich Town, but the team seems to be no further along than they were in the opening day defeat to Aston Villa.
The one statistic that Lopetegui could hide behind was his excellent record away from home, but that has now been erased by yesterday’s defeat in North London.
Max Kilman’s observation that West Ham were getting better but ‘lost concentration’ just won’t cut it as an excuse anymore. The Hammers should be too far into the Lopetegui project for such things to be an issue, particularly given that the Irons’ gaffer had a whole two weeks on the training ground to drill the Hammers’ defence.
Time is running out for Lopetegui. Not only are West Ham fans getting nervous, but the mainstream media is getting on his back too, which means trouble.
We’ve not yet heard that Lopetegui only has three games remaining, but I would not be surprised if, privately, that very deadline has been discussed.
