Julen Lopetegui said his West Ham team deserved to beat Brentford in Saturday’s 1-1 draw as he allayed any injury fears over Mohammed Kudus.
The Hammers earned their fifth point of a difficult start to the season as Tomas Soucek cancelled out Bryan Mbeumo’s first-minute opener at the Gtech Community Stadium.
West Ham remain unbeaten away from home in the league this season but have won only one of their six matches so far, producing a number of subdued performances along the way in the early months of Lopetegui’s tenure.
“I have always felt the support of the fans, always”, the Spaniard said. “Today, too, it was very important keeping us [up] in the bad moments. At least we were able to achieve one point and to finish the match deserving more.
“I feel they support us always, and this is key. It is time to achieve a lot of things right now.
“We wanted the three points and, being honest, I think in the second half, we were better and deserved the three points. We had good personality and good character.”
Lopetegui took off both Kudus and Emerson at half-time, replacing them with Carlos Soler and Konstantinos Mavropanos and moving a number of players into new positions.
Reflecting on the second 45 minutes, Lopetegui said: “The second half we worked as a team, and for me this is a very important step. I highlighted the behaviour in the second half, because I think we put on the pitch what we needed.”
Lopetegui admitted the importance of beating winless Ipswich at the London Stadium next weekend has grown after failure to claim all three points against Brentford.
“Yes, it is always important to finish with this kind of feeling,” he said. “We have to look forward to the next match.
“We haven’t lost away in three matches but we know we have to do better at home, despite the three matches we’ve played being against three Champions League teams. We have to look forward to Ipswich. We want to win this match for sure.”
Lopetegui said of taking off Ghana forward Kudus at the break: “It was a tactical decision. I was thinking that we need that. I was thinking that was better for the team and we needed these kinds of changes.”
