Julen Lopetegui is making things really hard on himself at West Ham United right now in my opinion.
West Ham brought Julen Lopetegui to the London Stadium in the summer to replace David Moyes.
Unfortunately for the Spaniard though, it has been a real baptism of fire for him in charge of the Hammers.
Things got so bad against Chelsea on Saturday that Julen Lopetegui actually apologised to the West Ham fans after the game .
The 58-year-old brought nine new players to the London Stadium in the summer transfer window, whilst 12 players were moved on, so he undoubtedly needs time to implement his footballing philosophy at the club.That said, the West Ham fans really do need to see some signs of progress if Lopetegui is to be given the time he needs.
He’s just not making things easy on himself right now.
Julen Lopetegui is getting one big decision wrong at West Ham
We all know how tough the Hammers’ start to the 2024/25 campaign has been.
However, I really think that Lopetegui is making things more difficult for himself than they have to be.
This is highlighted with his use of Jean-Clair Todibo so far, or lack thereof.The 24-year-old moved to the London Stadium from Nice in the summer transfer window amidst huge fanfare.
However, his start to life with the Hammers has been rather concerning so far.Hammers News have exclusively been told that
Lopetegui ‘doesn’t believe the Frenchman is ‘tough enough’ to play in England right now.
However, there are other claims emerging suggesting that Todibo is not fit enough to play in the Premier League at the moment ( Give Me Sport).
The thing is, it doesn’t really matter what the real reason is for the 24-year-old being left out of Lopetegui’s starting XI.
The Spaniard’s choice to start an alternative option to Tobido is crazy in every sense.
Jean-Clair Todibo on another level to Konstantinos Mavropanos
Konstantinos Mavropanos has been absolutely dreadful for West Ham this season.
There is a genuine case to be made for the 26-year-old being at fault for all three Chelsea goals on Saturday.
Mavropanos is always, and I mean always, prone to making a costly errors during games, despite how well he may be playing at the time.
In fairness to the Greek defender, I’m not quite sure what has happened to him – he was a very solid operator for Stuttgart in the Bundesliga.
The bottom line for me is that Jean-Clair Todibo performing at 80% of his potential would be better for West Ham than Konstantinos Mavropanos playing week in, week out, and Julen Lopetegui must realise this sooner rather than later.
What the Spaniard is doing right now is making things harder than they need to be. I expect to see Todibo start instead of Mavropanos now from here on out.