Fourteen weeks into the 2024/2025 Premier League season, and there is early unrest amongst the fans of West Ham United. Big losses against teams such as Tottenham, Arsenal and most recently newly promoted Leicester City have cast a treacherous shadow over the future of new head coach Julen Lopetegui. Following the dismissal of long term manager David Moyes at the conclusion of last season, West Ham fans were promised new life, a more progressive, attacking style of football to get fans at the Olympic Stadium off their seats, however this is yet to occur. Despite a mixed start to the season, fans have once again been forced to come to terms with slow, dull football.
The term the ‘West Ham way’ is often seen as the mantra of the club, which consists of three characteristics, hard work, honesty and aggression. It is a style of football that has always been at the epicentre of the Hammer’s history. Quick, attractive football, which can be dated back to the clubs early days, and can be traced through time and highlighted by players such as Bobby Moore, Trevor Brooking and Paolo Di Canio. This feeling is long gone however. The board of Gold and Sullivan forever drafting in the easiest option to fill the managerial void, coaches who contradict the west ham way in every sense, and have no intention of finding a middle ground between their own and the clubs style.
Following the disastrous domestic performance of the club last season, the sacking of David Moyes seemed inevitable, finishing in ninth on 52 points, whilst boasting the clubs worst ever defensive season in its Premier league history, conceding 74 goals, and only securing 5 clean sheets in 38 games. His dismissal still caused a whirlwind of media upset, with TalkSPORT’s Jamie O’Hara telling West Ham fans to “be careful what you wish for.” This backlash wasn’t unjustified, with West Ham’s most successful era in their modern history coming under the guidance of Moyes, converting them from a team in a constant conflict with the possibility of relegation, to one that has battled Europe’s best for three consecutive years, and won the UEFA Conference League, the first silverware for the club in 43 years.
Following the sacking of Moyes, former manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers, Julen Lopetegui, was named successor to the team. Once again, this caused mass upset amongst the fan base to see a defensive, cautious manager at the helm, with both coaches averaging well under 50% possession per game, as well as the same amount of errors leading to goals, despite the disparity in matches played. Fans’ concerns were deemed valid early into the season, with just four victories from their first 14 games, a goal difference of -9, and a lack of attacking clarity and quality, despite over £100m of attacking players bought in the previous two seasons.
This has been a long-standing issue of the Irons, with Jamaican international Michail Antonio being the long-time main option having been signed by the club initially as a right-back in 2015. Since his switch from defence to attack, many players have been signed to be his replacement, but none being able to find form in what many call the most challenging league in the world, including Sebastian Haller, Gianluca Scamacca, and Andy Carroll. The most recent attempt at displacing Antonio came this summer, with 31 year-old German Niclas Fullkrug making a move from Borussia Dortmund for £22.5m, with little success once again, as the German International suffered an achilles injury while on international duty in September, only returning off the bench last night.
Added to Lopetegui’s despair, is the impending conclusion of the FA investigation on star midfielder Lucas Paqueta for potential betting breaches in 2023. These charges were brought when it was alleged that he was booked deliberately on four separate occasions, in an attempt to profit from the betting market, with a potential life-time ban handed to Paqueta if found guilty. Prior to the charges, he was a star player for the team, however as the accusations have continued, his quality and consistency have declined significantly, with the Brazilian only having two goals and no assists in 14 matches thus far this season. Sofa score, a live score and statistics app, ranked his performances at 7.21/10 through 31 games last season, in contrast to his average of 6.86/10 this campaign, with his drop in form seriously affecting the teams attacking prosperity.
Last Monday’s victory over Newcastle seemed like the turning point of the season for the Irons, with a more cohesive display from all involved, the first time this season that the squad has shown signs of buying into the coach’s methodology. A beautiful corner routine left Tomas Soucek free to head into the far corner, before summer signing Aaron Wan-Bissaka doubled the Hammers lead in the 53rd minute, to secure a massive 3 points away from home. What seemed like a great week for West Ham quickly turned sour, after a devastating 2-5 thrashing by Premier League favourites Arsenal, conceding five goals inside the opening 45 minutes, followed by a humbling by Leicester in a 3-1 loss, despite having 23 more shots than the East Midlands team.
Lopetegui had been given this recent run of fixtures to prove to the board that he is still the best man for the job, but in their current vein of form, Sporting Director Tim Steidten will surely be on the look for the Spaniard’s replacement.