Julen Lopetegui made a huge decision to bring experienced goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski against Manchester United last week, which worked out well as the 39-year-old was one of the standout performers from the 2-1 home win. Following his impressive displays against the Red Devils, Fabianski again started the Nottingham Forest away match, but a number of defensive mistakes and Edson Alvarez's red-card led the Hammers to face their fifth league defeat.
West Ham left Chris Wood unmarked on the opening goal and later couldn't make a clearance on Callum Hudson-Odoi's long-range goal. Further, the Hammers gave a lot of space to Aina, who took an attempt on goal from outside the box which found the back of the net as well.
Experienced West Ham star left unimpressed after fifth league defeat
These mistakes highlighted West Ham's lacklustre decision making in the ongoing season, and Fabianski was also visibly left unimpressed by his side's underwhelming overall performance in both attack as well as the defence. After the match, Fabianski admitted that the team needs to step up their efforts in the training to take more points in the Premier League, saying,
"It’s just another example of us not managing the game in the right way, and I think we’ve seen that on other occasions this season as well.Lukasz Fabianski
We’ve worked on lots of different aspects of our game, but we need to lead in different ways in training and games, and step up."
Throughout this season, West Ham have struggled with forming a rock-solid defence and manager Julen Lopetegui again played Aaron Wan-Bissaka in a right midfielder role which left more empty spaces behind the defence while going forward. Also, the attack couldn't register more attempts on goal from near the edge of the box which made it easier for Nottingham Forest to keep a clean-sheet.
A lot of lineup changes are expected in the next away fixture against Everton, and West Ham could also decide to bring a new manager to replace Lopetegui if the Hammers couldn't take consistent results in the upcoming Premier League matches.