Leadership isn’t just something that comes from the guy with the armband. Leaders come from across the pitch and West Ham United have clear need for leadership across their defensive line. Early signs were good that Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo can provide that pairing to lead the Hammers towards the nirvana of a clean sheet – starting today against Ipswich but make no bones about it, the Tractor Boys are heading down the A12 with excitement at the prospect of playing a West Ham team still floundering.
We are served up training videos and photo shoots together with Lopetegui’s pre-match press conference to show how ‘tough’ the Premier League games are and how hard the team is working.
I’d like to see something else – a new direction from our head coach in his own demeanour. Less of the Arteta-style Angst, and more Lope-Leadership.
That means dialling down the touch line antics and face-pulling when VAR doesn’t go his way and a more measured, mature approach which will then permeate through his team.
I had to share this description from 3addedminutes.com – I’d love to claim it as my own but it helped me crystallise my own thoughts and uneasiness when Lopetegui’s antics at Brentford lead to the team even complaining long after the final whistle that they should have received a corner for heavens’ sake. Was I the only one thinking ‘grow up, boys, this is embarrassing’.
“He doesn’t cut an especially charismatic figure. There is no sense of blood and thunder when things go wrong, more the look of a slightly defeated science teacher trying to cope with an unruly class. That rather downtrodden demeanour undersells a sharp coach who has done some excellent work at a few different clubs, but when things start to go wrong it can make him feel less convincing than he probably is in reality”.
I’d add that in every business, sporting organisation or other conglomerate, everything travels ‘downhill from the top ‘- so if the head coach acts with greater certainty, decisiveness and clear control, then the team he has picked are more likely to do the same.