Julen Lopetegui must replace Lucas Paqueta at HT for West Ham v Manchester City. West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui should bring on a new face for Lucas Paqueta if his side are to come back in the second half against Manchester City on Saturday (31 August).
The Irons dominated the opening moments of the match but City were soon in control of possession, and opened the scoring just 10 minutes into the contest through Erling Haaland after Paqueta lost the ball in midfield.
Alphonse Areola was soon being called into action every few minutes, keeping a long-range effort from De Bruyne out following a corner and seeing both the Belgian and Jack Grealish clip the frame of his goal.
Ruben Dias steering a Jarrod Bowen cross into his own net barely 10 minutes later gave the Irons parity at 1-1, but City’s dominance continued, holding the Hammers at arm’s length before Haaland lashed in a thunderous strike to make it 2-1 on the half-hour mark.
Julen Lopetegui must take off Lucas Paqueta in West Ham v Manchester City. Tomas Soucek not being in the starting line-up was the headline news coming out of the London Stadium pre-match, with Edson Alvarez selected ahead of the Czech for his first start of the season.
However, perhaps that should have been in place of Paqueta, who despite pushing into the number 10 role still had plenty of defending to do, but didn’t do it anywhere near well enough. Another giveaway from the Brazilian followed straight after the one which led to City’s equalising goal, and he continued to be bypassed in defence – and attack whenever the Irons broke forward.
Lucas Paqueta has cut a frustrated figure for West Ham against Manchester City so far
A busy summer of business leaves Lopetegui with a plethora of potential replacements on the Hammers bench, with Soucek and Andy Irving both capable of coming on and playing a more defensive-minded role.
However, with just one goal in it, Paqueta could be replaced by the likes of Crysencio Summerville or Luis Guilherme, either of whom would help to stretch the City defence and allow Bowen or Mohammed Kudus to move into a more central attacking position.
In other West Ham news, Sam Allardyce has slammed comments made about his former side
