Leicester City 3 West Ham 1
It's the worst possible start watching this on Amazon Prime. Lopetegui has rotated Emerson, Paqueta and Antonio and opted for a workmanlike side, though again Summerville is on the bench. Meanwhile the Leicester crowd are up for it in Ruud Van Nistelrooy's first game in charge.
Two minutes in and Jamie Vardy races behind Mavropanos to sidefoot home a fine finish. The ref gives offside, but VAR reveals that Albert Steptoe is just onside thanks to Dinos's foot. It's no secret that Vardy plays on the shoulder of defenders and Dinos really should have been more alert. Matt WhatsApps that Mavropanos is West Ham's worst ever defender, which is a bit unfair on Gary Breen and co. Dinos does have potential, but he really has to improve his concentration.
Vardy forces a low save from Fabianski but for the rest of the half West Ham dominate. Bowen has a curling shot saved by Hermansen. Bowen crosses for Danny Ings to head against the post. Jarrod then fires against the keeper's legs. Kudus looks forceful on his return and his fine cross is headed wide by Tomaas Soucek - the sort of chance he normally scores with.
It looks like one of those games where we'll do everything but score. Ings fails to gamble on an inviting cross. Hermansen makes his best save, deflecting Bowen's instinctive flock from Alvarez's cross. Soler volleys narrowly wide after a corner. While just before the interval Hermansen spills Ings' mishit and Soler has another effort parried. West Ham have 20 shots in the first half.
Summerville replaces Ings at the break, as the Hammers continue to press. Kudus has a deflected shot tipped over by the keeper. What seems a good equaliser is disallowed as Hermansen fumbles Summerville's deflected effort under minimal pressure from Soucek. Tomas really didn't do anything wrong there.
But on 61 minutes it's 2-0. McAteer is afforded too much space on the left, and he finds El Khannouss who hasn't been marked tightly enough and scores with a low effort into the corner.
Fabianski has to make a great stop from Ndidi's header to prevent a third. Emerson, Antonio and Paqueta have come on. There's almost a West Ham lifeline as after good work from Wan-Bissaka and Bowen, Summerville's shot is cleared from halfway over the line by Coady.
SACKED IN THE MORNING?
The Hammers still look very vulnerable to the break. De-Cordova Reid has a goal disallowed for a marginal offside. But on 90 minutes Daka flicks the ball away from the disappointing Kilman on the halfway line, races towards goal and fires in a left foot rocket at Fabianski's near-post. The lack of cover is worrying and Wan-Bissaka is again too far upfield. "Sacked in the morning!" chant the West Ham fans. Things are so bad I'm starting to wonder if we could get Kurt Zouma and his dodgy knees back from his loan in the UAE.
At least the side keep going and in the 93d minute Bowen's corner is flicked on by Summerville for sub Fullkrug to head home. That's the only good thing to come out of the evening, and you hope Niclas is now back, fit and ready to start a run of goals.
West Ham have been unlucky and had an astonishing 31 shots only to get mugged at the back and lose 3-1. But sometimes you have to make your own luck. While I'm never one for sacking managers too quickly this is feeling like the wrong manager at the wrong club. In Lopetegui's 16 games we've only played well in three, Crystal Palace, Ipswich and Newcastle.
Many fans would take Potter, either Graham or Harry. Loppy's system isn't working and his verbose post-match interviews suggest he might have trouble communicating his ideas to the players. It's not good enough from Steidten either, and with £100m net spent on ten players results have to be better. Wolves is now a six-pointer and we have to win, whether Lopetegui stays or not.
2 comments:
Good write up, Thanks. It looks as though Newcastle away was just a fortuitous alignment of the stars ( in the sky ) . We have gone back to default, total shambles, no discernable strategy, and players getting very frustrated. Many could leave in Jan IMO.
Its all very depressing and we are heading towards the "zone" with every game.
Lopetagui can't communicate his plan ( if he has one! ) and his time is up.
Possession stats are great though and much better than DM, but its points required on the table now, not chaotic attack without results and dire defense.
Hopefully the kindest think that can be done now is to say goodbye, and not a long goodbye!
The consensus around me at the Arsenal game is that we can't defend. Last night sounds the same. Whatever system he wants, the players either don't understand it or can't play it. Apart from Grant I've always wanted to give managers time but something's got to change now.
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