Julen Lopetegui made the most clueless decision a manager could make with Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta.
West Ham United drew 1-1 with Bournemouth on Monday night, and Julen Lopetegui has some questions to ask regarding his use of Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta.
Julen Lopetegui actually took Mohammed Kudus off late in the game, before Lucas Paqueta put West Ham ahead from the spot in the 87th minute.
Bournemouth went on to equalise and the Premier League clash finished in a draw.
Not a bad result without context, but a poor one if we really want to push on towards the European spots.
Before the game against Bournemouth kicked off, it was claimed that Lopetegui would be given some ‘leeway’ by the board, regardless of the result against the Cherries.
That annoyed me to begin with. Have we really reached a stage whereby we’re not expected to go to Bournemouth and win?
From the upcoming games against Brighton, Southampton and Liverpool, a bare minimum of four points will suffice.
However, in order to achieve that, Lopetegui needs to stop putting square pegs in rounds holes.
Julen Lopetegui made clueless Kudus and Paqueta decisions
The Ghanaian failed to fire last night, whilst the Brazilian was actually a liability in the middle of the park.
Sure, he scored the penalty but his overall performance was rank bad if you ask me.
I’m not sure the poor performances of Kudus and Paqueta were entirely their own faults though.
Lopetegui has to shoulder some of the blame.
In what was a truly mind-boggling decision, the Hammers head coach deployed Kudus out wide on the left and Paqueta on the right wing.
It was a baffling call, mainly because the 24-year-old former Ajax star’s best position is out wide on the right, whilst Paqueta has proven before that he actually excels on the left wing.
With Jarrod Bowen operating through the middle, Julen Lopetegui should have started Mohammed Kudus as a right winger and used Lucas Paqueta out wide on the left.
And even better than that, Crysencio Summerville could have started on the left wing, with Paqueta playing centrally in place of the hapless Edson Alvarez.
Lopetegui has made some baffling selection decisions since he took over at West Ham, and the way he utilised Kudus and Paqueta last night had me scratching my head.
The Spaniard has to get these calls right, or there will be no future for him at the London Stadium.
