The departed Julen Lopetegui’s calling card was perhaps the porous backbone of his side during his tenure. He suffered eight heavy defeats during his 21-game reign at the club, conceding three or more goals in those eight games.
This made his position untenable, and the Spaniard was out of work after just seven months in charge. I was hopeful when he arrived at the club in July, he talked a good game speaking of his pride at being manager at such a big club, and his CV looked impressive.
As time went on though, and with each passing game it became more and more apparent that his methods were not working. His football wasn’t too dissimilar to that of David Moyes, but at least, it seemed as though the players were fighting for the badge rather than fighting the manager following another limp display under the Spaniard’s stewardship.
Reports surfaced of the manager having run-ins with players, during the heavy defeat to Arsenal, a stand-up row in the dressing room between Jean Clair Todibo and Lopetegui had to be resolved by Jarrod Bowen. It is also rumoured that the Spaniard fell out with Mohammed Kudus and Guido Rodrigues.
With that knowledge in the public domain perhaps it was hardly surprising that we would crumble so easily in games. The common theme was there for all to see, we would go a goal or two down and our heads would drop and our negative mentality would see us slide to a heavy defeat.
Liverpool have already scored 10 goals against us in two games this season, Arsenal followed up their rout last season with another this time around, struggling Leicester rode their luck but ultimately eased past Lopetegui’s men. Even during our positive mini-revival, the performance on the pitch was less than convincing.
Success over Wolves and Southampton and battling points against Brighton and Bournemouth were at times fortuitous with Wolves denied two penalties and Southampton wasteful in front of goal. Perhaps the strangest moment of the season was our performance at St James Park, with us producing a near-perfect away display in Newcastle.
It was though, unfortunately for Lopetegui, the outlier rather than the norm. His face ultimately didn’t fit at the club and we will look now to improve under Potter and quash this negative mindset and start picking up dominant wins rather than limp defeats.
Heavy defeats weren’t just Lopetegui’s specialty though, we have had some scarring defeats over the years. Under David Moyes, we were smashed 6-0 last season by Arsenal, with Declan Rice scoring on his Premier League return to London Stadium.
2024 as a whole saw us concede a whopping 79 goals in the calendar year, the most since 1967. The form of this squad of players isn’t solely a Lopetegui issue but I fear it runs much deeper than that.
The team faltered under Moyes too, so the new manager’s first remit is to switch that mentality, always fight and believe the game is there to win and never surrender, become harder to beat and most importantly take your chances.
I have lost count of the number of times on the way to games I have said: ‘We are going to give someone a hiding soon’ and the only game that we have come close to in recent times is the win over newly-promoted Ipswich this season.
A squad of West Ham’s quality should be turning teams over in the lower half of the league. Even during Lopetegui’s final game in charge at the Etihad, we had 17 shots but only mustered four on target, we have to become more clinical in front of goal.
I am hopeful Potter will be able to wave his magic wand and get a tune out of our attacking players, as well as ensure the likes of Kilman, Mavropanous and Todibo cut out their sloppy defensive mistakes. If he can achieve that I am confident that we will be discussing comfortable wins rather than harrowing defeats.
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