Upon arrival at London Stadium this summer, Julen Lopetegui was greeted with excitement and optimism alongside many followers suggesting we ‘should see where the team is at Christmas’ before passing judgement. Hungry for instant success, its fair to say that Lopetegui’s relationship with many fans has been up-and-down: Many still remain to be won over as poor performances and player discipline has been the norm.
All signs of a team in transition? Perhaps. The integration of nine new recruits in the summer was a bigger challenge than many thought, along with a new coach mentality and coaching philosophy to ingest has made for criticism as the sometimes chaotic change has taken place in the public eye.
Now though, team Captain Jarrod Bowen alludes to the team being much clearer about what Julen Lopetegui demands, five months into his tenure as head coach.
On whufc.com Bowen confirms: “On Monday, every player on the pitch understood the assignment.”
Indeed, it did look to us as if the ‘team was singing from the same hymn sheet.’ Finally it looks as if Lopetegui knows his best formation. And Bowen believes the effort levels are now up where they should be:“That [Newcastle win] was more like the level of what it takes to play for this Club. The desire and work-rate from everyone was excellent, and a clean sheet away at Newcastle is not an easy thing to achieve.”
Perhaps indeed, if not by this weekend when the toughest challenge of Arsenal awaits – but in the five games that follow in the pre-Christmas run up, we shall really be able to say that the ‘change’ is over and the ‘improvement’ has begun.
