A journalist from The Times claims there are ‘echoes from Real Madrid’ about West Ham as the pressure mounts on Julen Lopetegui.
The November international break is always ominous for Premier League managers.
This time that’s particularly true for Julen Lopetegui at West Ham.
With Erik ten Hag gone, nobody in the top flight is under more pressure than the Spaniard.
If a club is going to sack a manager then this two-week slot – the last pause in action until March – is usually when it happens.
The rationale is that any new man then has two weeks to work with the players who haven’t gone away with their countries. They can also settle in before the action resumes.
Not to mention the benefit of assessing the squad ahead of the January transfer window.
Lopetegui failed to capture the imagination of West Ham fans when he was appointed.
It is fair to say that remains the case 13 games into his Hammers tenure.
The bigger problem for West Ham, though, is that Lopetegui is failing to capture the imagination of his players too.
When Everton came to the London Stadium it was billed by several journalists with strong contacts inside the club as a “must win”.
Especially given the game was being followed by the last break of the year.
‘Echoes from Real Madrid’ about West Ham claims Times journalist
Anyone watching West Ham’s performance would conclude this is not a team fighting tooth and nail and straining every sinew to save their manager.
In the first half in particular, it was quite the opposite.
A drab 0-0 draw was dubbed the worst game of the Premier League season so far.
Swathes of Hammers fans left the ground early yet again and so begins two weeks of speculation over Lopetegui’s future.
Eight managers have been linked with the West Ham job. There are also claims co-owner David Sullivan and technical director Tim Steidten are going to meet this week to discuss Lopetegui’s future.
That comes after the owners acknowledged performances are not good enough.
With the heat rising on the boss, Hammers News pondered last week whether West Ham should heed the words of Guillem Balague, the Spanish journalist.
When Lopetegui took over, Balague said his compatriot was ‘one of the best managers in the world’.
West Ham are yet to see any evidence of that. But Balague did caveat his praise by saying ‘it will take time’.
Many point to the fact Lopetegui has Spain and Real Madrid on his CV as well as Porto and Sevilla.
He was sacked from all of those jobs before walking out on Wolves on the eve of last season.
Now a Times journalist claims there are ‘echoes from Real Madrid’ about West Ham as the pressure mounts on Lopetegui.
Lopetegui ‘not the right fit’ for Hammers
Tom Allnutt says nobody should be surprised by Lopetegui’s struggles in east London because he was never the right fit for West Ham.
Real Madrid always stands out on a manager’s CV.
It brings an element of prestige and wonderment.
But Allnutt says there are ‘haunting echoes from Real Madrid’ about Lopetegui at West Ham.
And he believes his ill-fated stint at the world’s biggest club is being replicated with the Hammers.
“It’s no shock Julen Lopetegui is toiling – he’s not the right fit for West Ham,” says Allnutt in The Times.
“Head coach knows he must overcome ‘bad moment’ with haunting echoes of his four-month spell in charge of Real Madrid…
“When West Ham decided to move on from David Moyes in the summer, it was with the fans in mind, given it was the dragging sense of stagnation and functional style of play, more than results, that became increasingly unpalatable last season.
“The question is whether Lopetegui was ever the right solution to that problem, as a coach who made his name in Spain as a tactician first and foremost, someone who revelled in making his teams organised and hard to beat, with an approach that was intense and high on detail. In that context, Lopetegui has always been more pragmatist than purist, a coach keen to adapt his teams to the strengths they have…
“Lopetegui lasted 138 days in charge of Real Madrid in 2018, three months after losing his job with Spain the day before the start of the World Cup. Saturday was his 170th day in charge of West Ham, with the pressure mounting.”
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