Julen Lopetegui unimpressed with West Ham's second half display
- West Ham conceded three second half goals in comeback 4-1 defeat.
- Julen Lopetegui left unimpressed with the Hammers defensive performance.
By Rahul Das
Recently, West Ham faced a massive 4-1 away defeat against Tottenham Hotspurs in the eighth Premier League matchday. This was a fourth league defeat for the Hammers against a top Premier League side, before facing Erik Ten Hag's Manchester United in the next home fixture.
While the two sides were mostly balanced in the first half at 1-1, the home side took advantage of West Ham's struggling defence inside the first fifteen minutes of the second half. Moreover, goalkeeper Alphonse Areola made a mistimed save on the third goal, and the Hammers conceded two goals at the near-post.
Further, Areola and Kilman couldn't manage to block Sarr's second goal as well after the Hammers left the Tottenham Hotspurs midfielder unmarked inside the box. Therefore, West Ham could have settled for a 1-1 draw in this match, but allowed Ange Postecoglou's side to create a number of goalscoring opportunities while defending.
Julen Lopetegui unimpressed with West Ham's second half display
Similar to the West Ham fans, manager Julen Lopetegui was also left unimpressed with the Hammers performance and discussed their second half performance, saying,
"After the second goal, we can do much better than we did to avoid these moments for sure because all our players knew what their players were going to do.
- Julen Lopetegui
We didn’t defend well. I think the worst-thing today was the eight minutes when we were not competitive."
Lopetegui highlighted that West Ham had prepared well for this match but couldn't implement their tactics after they went 2-1 behind early in the second half. Although West Ham had previously conceded three goals against Manchester City and Chelsea, this defensive display was underwhelming due to the fact that they took the 1-0 lead.
Further, this match has increased speculations regarding Alphonse Areola's departure from West Ham, as the 31-year-old has conceded a lot of goals at the near-post this season. Moreover, Kilman and Todibo often left much space inside the box and didn't manage to contribute much in the build up play.
dark. Next. Kudus continues goalscoring form but defensive mistakes lead to 4-1 away defeat. Kudus continues goalscoring form but defensive mistakes lead to 4-1 away defeat
Therefore, a number of defensive changes are expected in the upcoming matches and manager Julen Lopetegui could consider bringing Konstantinos Mavropanos back in the starting lineup.
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