West Ham United head coach Julen Lopetegui is quite clearly a man on a mission this summer. The need for new signings at West Ham this summer is obvious to see, especially after yesterday’s 3-1 defeat to Wolves. Julen Lopetegui was not happy one little bit with the performance of his team at the EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, and he shared how he told his players exactly that after the match.
There were some impressive performances, namely from Mohammed Kudus and Freddie Potts, but many of our players flattered to deceive.
In fact, that’s putting it too kindly – a lot of them were awful, including the likes of Vladimir Coufal, Aaron Cresswell and Maxwel Cornet especially. We all know that pre-season games can be notoriously unpredictable, and are never a true measure of how a team will perform in the regular campaign.
To add strength to that argument, we only need to look back to the 2010/11 campaign when we got relegated after enjoying a fabulous pre-season. That’s not to say that we can’t be concerned after seeing what we’ve seen during the sluggish pre-season campaign so far though.
West Ham fans must listen to Julen Lopetegui transfer hint. The Hammers head coach has already made three new signings this summer, but the need for more new arrivals is abundantly clear.
Lopetegui desperately needs to sign a proper centre-forward, a central midfielder, a left winger and another centre-back before the transfer window slams shut, as a bare minimum in my opinion. The West Ham transfer team and owners had better act fast though, with just a few weeks remaining before the new season starts.
Lopetegui has made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that yesterday’s display out in Jacksonville highlighted to him exactly what he needs to add to his team.
The Spaniard spoke to the club’s in-house media team after the 3-1 defeat to our Premier League rivals (WHUFC.com).
Lopetegui said, “We have to analyse this match with calmness, but always knowing that sometimes this is not a bad thing that this happens in the pre-season, because I want us to know more about our needs.“ ‘Know more about our needs’ is the key line here.
It’s quite obvious to me that Lopetegui desperately wants, and needs, more bodies through the door at the London Stadium.
Despite the disappointing performance yesterday, it would have been a really good learning exercise for the Hammers head coach.
There are too many players at the club right now who either aren’t good enough to execute Lopetegui’s ideas, or they haven’t got the hunger to learn new ideas.
There is only three weeks to go now before the new Premier League season begins, and Julen Lopetegui has to find a way of getting a tune out of his West Ham squad.
However, the need for three or four more new signings is obvious to see, and the Spaniard made it very clear that he wants some new players through the door during his post-match press conference.
