Sixty thousand plus attendees to that game today knew it. Every one of our readers who commented loud and clear knew it. Even I knew it. That team selected for the first half with Paquetá, Soler and Rodriguez starting in midfield was going to be an absolute calamity.
Fortunately for Lopetegui and for West Ham, Manchester United were woeful and missed chance after chance after chance. It should have been five nil at half time.
What is it with these managers / head coaches? Do they watch a different game or are they so completely, totally stupid-stubborn that they have to play their ‘pet’ players rather than pick the best eleven? Leaving Summerville on the bench instead of Carlos Soler – and starting Paquetá who has been an utter passenger amounted to head coach- negligence.
It makes my head hurt. By half time I had gone from the ‘Lopetegui deserves a fair chance’ group to the ‘Fire him now’ lobby. I was positively ranting at the screen.
The difference between Moyes and Lopetegui is that Moyes doubled down on his selections and sent the same team out in the second half, waiting til the game was lost before making changes after staring blankly at the Kevin Nolan i-pad.
At least – thank heaven – Julen Lopetegui is prepared to admit he got it wrong and make changes at half time. The difference was as if he’d changed the whole eleven. They suddenly felt more capable, better organised and confident. Was it braveness, stubbornness or stupidity that made Lopetegui ignore his Chairmans’ pick, Crysencio Summerville, as a starter? At least he corrected the error at half time and pulled Paqueta and Soler off too.
Make no bones about it, Lopetegui and West Ham got lucky today. Summerville was superb and if Lopetegui doesn’t learn from that second half, he deserves his p45 next week.
If you ever get a chance to watch that whole first half, don’t. It’s 45 minutes you’ll never get back.
