West Ham arrive at the King Power Stadium, where the first game of Ruud van Nistelrooy’s tenure in charge of Leicester signals a fresh start for the Foxes.
With a ruthless sort of clarity, they moved last week to sack Steve Cooper, the Welshman having become a divisive figure — plenty of supporters still backing him, but many wanting him gone.
Julen Lopetegui finds himself in not-so-different a position. It is said the club are already plotting potential replacements, such has been his side’s underwhelming start to the campaign.
Following the November international break, Lopetegui was said to be facing two games to save his bacon. Those have now passed — a thoroughly deserved 2-0 win at Newcastle creating a real sense of optimism that the tide was turning, only for the Hammers to then lose 5-2 to Arsenal, conceding five first-half goals in a Premier League game for the first time in the club’s history.
Now to start afresh, not with a new head coach but with a new pair of pivotal matches in which for Lopetegui to prove himself.
Credible excuses are now thin on the great. Mohammed Kudus is back from his extended five-game ban for his red card and violent conduct at Tottenham, Niclas Fullkrug is finally edging towards a return from his Achilles injury nightmare, and Standard Sport revealed on Monday that Lucas Paqueta has been cleared to feature at Leicester after his appearance at a Brazilian parliament inquiry — which clashed — was canned.
And while there is admittedly an element of the unknown about what Van Nistelrooy’s Leicester might have in store, West Ham, in 14th, sit above both the Foxes and Wolves, who they host on Monday. So make no mistake, Lopetegui and his players cannot afford to get the next six days wrong.
Situations like the one West Ham find themselves in are always more complex than being simply a matter of whether a manager is good enough, and the players must shoulder some responsibility. Captain Jarrod Bowen said so himself after the 2-0 win at St James’ Park, a rare night in Lopetegui’s young reign in which his tactical plan and the individual performances of each of his players all seemed to come together.
Bowen, Kudus, Paqueta, Michail Antonio and Crysencio Summerville have just nine league goals between them, requiring players further back to step up instead. Bowen and Antonio have worked tirelessly in almost every outing, but decision-making in the final third — particularly on swift counter-attacks — has often been woeful. Only two clubs have been less clinical from the shots they have taken: Crystal Palace and Everton.
After crunch clashes with Leicester and Wolves come games against the south coast trio of Bournemouth, Brighton and Southampton.
“It is a very good moment for the squad to show they can compete,” Lopetegui said.
It is hard not to see this segment of the season as a potential gold mine for West Ham if they can get it right. Fail to turn a corner, though, and Lopetegui could be gone before Christmas.
