Desperate Julen Lopetegui goes full Arteta with unusual West Ham change that’ll raise eyebrows at Newcastle

Before the season started Jamie Carragher backed West Ham to beat Newcastle to a European spot.

However, 11 Premier League games in that looks highly unlikely.

The 14th placed Hammers and eighth-placed Magpies are separated by six places and six points in the table.

But in reality the two teams are poles apart.

Newcastle have a dynamic side full of quality in midfield and a top striker up front.

West Ham have got their rebuild badly wrong on the evidence so far and it has left Lopetegui on the brink.

Reports ahead of West Ham’s trip to St James’s Park claim the Spaniard will be sacked if they lose to Newcastle and Arsenal next.

With many expecting two chastening defeats, that’s a tough ask.

The club’s owners don’t expect West Ham to suffer that fate. That has been seen as much of a warning as it is backing for Lopetegui.

West Ham couldn’t have hand-picked a worse opponent to face right now.

Lopetegui on the brink as West Ham go to Newcastle

Newcastle have won their last three games, beating Forest 3-1, Arsenal 1-0 and Chelsea 2-0.

Throw in the fact West Ham have to go to St James’s Park on a Monday night, under the lights, and it looks grim.

That’s not forgetting the Irons will be without banned Mohammed Kudus against Newcastle and Arsenal.

There are claims of unrest in the Hammers camp.

And several players publicly showed their disgust to Lopetegui during the draw with Everton.

Since arriving at West Ham, the 57-year-old has implemented a number of changes to routines.

He insists that the team travel by coach altogether to away games rather than take flights.

Whether that will be the case for the longest trip of the season remains to be seen.

But now desperate Lopetegui has gone full Mikel Arteta with an unusual West Ham change that’ll raise eyebrows at Newcastle.

Desperate Lopetegui goes full Arteta with unusual West Ham change

Arteta has done a brilliant job at Arsenal.

He has transformed the Gunners into title hopefuls over the last few years.

But some of his managerial techniques at Arsenal have made big headlines.

Not least because they were revealed in an Arsenal series of the Amazon documentary All or Nothing.

There have been quirky ideas used by Arteta to try and turn Arsenal around.

From players holding a piece of string connected to a lightbulb to having speakers put around the training pitch to try and replicate the noise of Anfield ahead of a game at Liverpool.

Now Lopetegui seems to be channelling his fellow Basque ahead of West Ham’s huge game at Newcastle.

Surprising images have been posted on West Ham’s social media ahead of the clash with Eddie Howe’s side.

They showed the West Ham squad training at night at their Rush Green base.

“Under the Rush Green lights,” West Ham posted alongside a series of pictures showing the team training for the Magpies.

The theory is that Lopetegui wants the players to acclimatise ahead of their first Monday night game of the season.

The likes of Jarrod Bowen, Crysencio Summerville, Alphonse Areola, Emerson Palmieri and Aaron Cresswell are seen training at night.

Training at night will raise eyebrows at in-form Newcastle

Usually training starts at around 10am and players are out of the training ground by 2pm.

So this is a complete sea change from Lopetegui, make no mistake about it.

It’s difficult to say whether it is unprecedented but it’s certainly rare, especially for a non-European match, to see the team training at night.

It is like something out of the Arteta playbook at Arsenal.

The unusual move could prove to be a masterstroke.

While there is a certain amount of logic to it, on the surface it looks a touch desperate.

But then that’s exactly what Lopetegui is if reports are to be believed.

At least he is being proactive and trying to spark some kind of change in the team’s performances and results.

Whether training at night ahead of a night game is genius or clueless remains to be seen.

Unfortunately in the modern game your methods as a manager are either one or the other.

Arteta found that out pretty quickly at Arsenal and Lopetegui will too at West Ham.

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