Lopetegui (sacked 8.1.2025)

[maverick180]

I was thoroughly looking forward to the start of this season

Was also prepared that things might take some time and wasn't expecting miracles over night What I didn't expect was a manager who after spending 6 weeks with the total dross he'd been left by Moyes would deem them fit to start in a premier league game And low and behold all of them played absolute shit

We're now 1 game in and none of our new players are any closer to bedding in or learning anything from their new team mates cos they barely spent a second on the pitch, half of them not at all I think it's gonna take somewhere between 6-10 games before we see the team anyone with an ounce of sense would play cos this bloke can't identify shit when he see's it I thought we was handed a miracle at half time when we went in level and low and behold he changed nothing I'm sure people are gonna make excuses for him and say it's too early to judge

But from what I've just seen today, this cսnt is David Moyes in a mission impossible mask

[factory seconds]

with lopetegui i currently feel neither particularly optimistic nor fatalistic. i don't think i've been so serene about a manager in my life. i dearly hope he's a success, but not that bothered about what failure looks like as he doesn't strike me as a bloke with a relegation in him.

after the reality bending personality cult around moyes, it's a relief to have someone that most WHU fans are generally on the same page about. he will live and die on the quality of football he produces as he's neither charismatic nor cringeworth, and doesn't hold sway over the media like his predecessor. if works out, happy days, if it doesn't work i'd like to think we have enough of a framework in place behind the scenes to swap him out for someone else without a solid year of "x games to save his job".

i am enjoying watching us again, primarily because i still have no clue what to expect.

[,]

Brighton should not be our benchmark or necessarily role model because they are a smaller club than us. We should as a club be targeting to emulate the likes of Villa and Newcastle. In both cases their resurgence following change of manager lead to qualifying for the CL.

That to me  is what Jalopy needs to achieve as a top aspiration. Minimally we need to qualify for European football coupled with good domestic cup runs. We need to capitalise on the advantage, this season, of not being in Europe thus keeping the squad fresher and fitter.

 

[SUM A DING WONG]

Rossal,

I forgot to mention Brighton beating a massively out of form Everton team, who had a defender sent off with best part of 30mins to go.

Silly me, eh.

If you read my post, properly, I pointed out how when Brighton change a manager, they are better at dealing with  the transition, due to them having a more established way of playing, and dealing with new player/manager changes, due to their more established DOF system. 

This also allows them to take punts on more unknowns, a lot easier.

Hopefully, as we become more accustomed to the system, we’ll be able to do likewise. 

Maybe if Will Still, keeps progressing , he’ll be worth a shot in  the future.

As for mentioning Slot - impossible task? What a load of old bollocks.He’s inherited an established squad that regularly qualifies for the CL, does their squad need some new editions, yes they do, but they’re hardly struggling.

Again, like with Brighton, Howe was hardly coming into a shit show at Newcastle. He ended up underperforming last year, so what difference did his ‘great start’ actually mean in the grand scheme of things.

Lopetegui coming into Wolves and turning it around straight away proves that sometimes you can hit the ground running, sometimes you don’t. 

Also, he came into a bit of a ‘do or die’ situation with Wolverhampton so it was a case of focusing on getting results straight off the bat. 

They HAD to perform straight away.

Lopetegui is undertaking a different remit at West Ham.

Emery, again, was more about making little tweaks.

They had a fairly established set of players, nothing majorly wrong going on apart from Gerrard being completely out of his depth.

Funny thing is, I wonder how many people were saying Emery was a shit manager, just because he was mediocre at Arsenal (forgetting what achieved before). 

Probably the same ones that are saying he’s a brilliant one, now.

Never expect big things at the very beginning of a manager starting a new season.

Great, if it hits the ground running, but it’s not essential in the grand scheme of things.

It’s not pretty at the moment, but when Lopetegui plays his proper team (like most of the 2nd half of the Crystal Palace game) - we’ll hopefully be seeing some lovely football, more often than not.

Traquillo, tranquillo.

[Rossal]

SUM A DING WONG » 18 Sep 2024 07:50

Brighton won their opening game 3-0 away with 2 signings starting and their young RB playing LB. Impressive. They play some great stuff and look like they've recruited well.  

Their manager has never managed in the top flight of any league let alone the Prem. 

Arne Slot at Liverpool was given an impossible task following Klopp. No new signings, Forest aside has had a great start to the season. Shit result saturday.....backed it up winning 3-1 at the San Siro last night. 

Lopetegui has prem experiance and plenty of coaching experience. I think underwhelming would define his start in the opening 4 games. 

Howe mad an instant impact at Newcastle, Emery did it at Villa. There are plenty of managers who can take a squad and hit the ground running and with the money spent and the talent on offer we really should be expecting better against the likes of Fulham. 

As i said Chelsea on sat is now a big game for us, we need a result. 

[Manuel]

SUM - Yea I can't argue with that mate, even when I mentioned Brighton I knew really that it was a nonsense anyway, just too many variables, as you point out, to make a direct comparison. let's see who finishes where in May.

Fwiw, I'm not anti Lop, I think he's a very good football person/coach, doubt there isn't anything he doesn't know about the game, and was fairly pleased when he came in, just hope that he's a good fit for us.

[SUM A DING WONG]

Apologies for the long post.

Having seen a couple of Brighton’s games, I think you’ll find, they only started most of their new players at home to Ipswich Town.

That ended up 0-0 against a team that played Kalvin Phillips for the whole game. There would be people on here demanding for the manager to be sacked, if that happened to us.

Brighton could easily have been beaten by Arsenal( Rice sent off with over 30mins to go) & Man U ( Man U went 2-1 up 20 mins to go, only to have it ruled out(rightly so) for an absolute fluke of an offside, that you’ll hardly ever see again).

This is not a not a criticism of Brighton, just adding some context to how they’re doing this season, seeing as they’re being used as a stick to beat the new manager with.

With regards to Brighton having a new manager, I’ll say this.They changed  their manager when they were still doing reasonably well, so there hasn’t been any crisis in confidence, very bad form to turn around or a defence shipping in goals left right and centre for the past couple of seasons.

Brighton, have also had the DOF setup running for at least the last 5 years, so they are used to dealing with more regular managerial changes and have a playing system set up, whereby they only buy certain players to fit a system.

We’re very much in the early stages of having the DOF system. I’m not counting last season, as Moyes was being an awkward cսnt towards Steidten, and not playing ball.

I like us following the Brighton model, but only to a certain degree.Their DOF system allows them to deal with a higher turn around in managers and players, better, than the way West Ham can.

That said, I’d like to think we’d keep the higher turn around in players/ managers to more of a minimum, because ultimately, I think Brighton will probably only be able to consistently finish 6/7 at the very best, each season.Great for Brighton, not so much for us, for the longer term.

I think we have the potential to be aiming for Europa League/Champions League

With regards to Lopetegui, he’s probably trying to find ways of using the old guard, to keep squad harmony and to find a use for them. 

It’s not really worked.

But, for all we know, Sullivan has probably requested that we do our best to utilise all the playing staff available.Moyes was a dinosaur who thought it was alright to flog the same 13 players, and just alienate/waste the rest of the squad. 

I’d be more concerned if Lopetegui had left Antonio and Soucek on for the whole game - he didn’t. I’m sure in an ideal world he doesn’t wasn’t to have to deal with them - but that’s life, eh.

Lopetegui was not my first choice. 

However, he by no means has the worst managerial CV in the world, so lets trust him for now and see where we are in the next 5 -10 games, before we start really criticising.

This season is a transitional season - whether any of us like it or not. 

It just so happens because of the signings we’ve made, we’ve given ourselves a chance of making it a good one. I say good, because I still think we’re a couple of players short for us to have a great season.   

[Rossal]

Yeah I dont buy the he needs time or tough start excuses etc 

At the end of the day first game he picked shit players, made some shit subs and we lost. 
Good win at Palace although defesively dodgy 
City fine move on
Fulham I didn't watch but on here the consensus was we were shit again....and he picked a shit line up again 

As just mentioned Brighton have a new manager and beat Man Utd and drew at Arsenal. 

Glasner went into Palace last season and had an impact. 

Saturday was very disappointing as after a 'tough' first 3 games it was a chance to see where we are really at with a good run of games coming up. Little bit of pressure on the Chelsea game now with Anfield away a few days after. 

I can see improvements in our play but team selection has been shite and anyone that picks Soucek raises massive alarm bells let alone a manager who sticks him in the no 10 away from home. What on earth was he thinking? 

[Lee Trundle]

"takes time to settle in"

I see that as total nonsense.  I've seen many occasions where a manager has managed to come in mid season and change things up immediately, and it's worked.

It was one of the things I was told Lopetegui did at Wolves which is why he'd be a good appointment for us.

[Fauxstralian]

It’s a big week for him
Team selection against Chelsea to something more positive …. no Soucek & Antonio for a start … will tell us a lot.
Then we go to Anfield for the League cup. Absolutely no excuse not to go full strength against a team who will be more concerned with their Champions league schedule 

I am still hopeful that change & improvement is coming
The Premier league schedule has been difficult, 2 very tough home games & away games where we were smashed for 5 under Moyes

[Manuel]

Blimey, I nearly lost the will to live reading that, pretty much every cliche under the sun there, you even tossed in the old kids school line, ffs. Have you ever heard of a new managers bounce, and how come Brighton are doing well with a new manager and a raft of new players?

I think we all understand it's not all going to be great straight off, if at all, but it's been a poor start for the reasons outlined many times on here. You say ''one step at a time'' but what does that even mean in football terms, you have just made that up and don't even know yourself, as it makes no sense. What ''steps'' have we made exactly? What is the next step? If you disagree with all that has been said on here as to why it's worrying and wish to turn a blind eye to it then as they say in Thailand - up to you.

[GBHammer63]

One person moving job to a new company takes time to settle in, working out who you can get on with and trust also who you can’t. Multiply that by numerous players leaving cities/ countries where they have settled not only themselves but their families, kids schools etc. it’s a massive job not just to assemble the squad but more importantly get them comfortable in new surroundings, then we can make an informed decision. I think we all want it all now, but realistically, one step at a time.

[Manuel]

I think this 'rebuild' thing is being overused, most games this season we've started with just two new players.

[GBHammer63]

He gets a dozen games from me before any judgement, wasn’t expecting any real form with that much of a rebuild, there’s been more than bits of hope. 
Glad to see the back of Zouma, but think that Soucek and Antonio should have been firmly fixed in his sights by now.

[,]

He avoided the net.

[claypole]

At least he HOOKED Tommy at half time

[Full Rug]

He was indeed carp on Saturday.

Let's hope we can REEL off some wins soon.

[Mex Martillo]

Lopetegui was absolutely carp on Saturday. I hope he registers that and doesn't do it again. I'm sure he will get there and get us results with soon nice football.

PS Unbelievably my spell checker nonsense that I have to find out how to switch off changed Loletegui to Bolshevik!!!

[Lee Trundle]

Who else is going to get on the end of one of Antonio's throw ins?  

[Full Rug]

Soucek invaluable? Fucking hell, I've read it all now 

[stubbo-admin]

Totally agree Massive.  But if plan A is posession, he can't be plan A.  He is very valuable, but needs to be Plan B.

[,]

It’s difficult not to get off with a slow start when two of the first four EPL games are against the champs and another team that achieved CL qualification. Part of the reason for this slow start is how the fixtures come out of the hat.

A pessimist would say our home league form is letting us down having lost both games ( naturally leaving out our winning cup game against Bournemouth ) whereas an optimist would say we are unbeaten on the road averaging two points a game.

The way seasons begin these days with the transfer window closing a couple of weeks after the opening weekends coupled with the two early season international breaks ( and this  means some players crossing continents to join their squads ) all mitigate against rapidly settling  in to a new season with a changed squad, coach and tactics. The sentient will say we need more time to make a more accurate and objective assessment of things. The knee jerking windbags think differently.

[Massive Attack]

I actually think it's more nuanced than that. 

We started really well against City, the first time Soucek wasn't in the side, and we had a proper battling midfield 3.  they then got round the sides at us in the first half.  Don't remember them dominating us through the middle.

Even at Fulham, we won the ball back relatively well in the first half with Alvarez and Guido doing good work, but couldn't keep possession once we had it with the absence of any kind of playmakers.

Once we have 3 from 4 of Paqueta, Soler, Guido, and Alvarez I'll be surprised if we're still being overrun in midfield.  Soucek is fundamentally a ghost in midfield so akin to playing with 10 men except at corners or crosses.

He's only a ghost when it comes to passing - A Passtergeist, if you will. He actually gets through a lot of defensive work on the pitch that goes underappreciated. For instance since he last started before away at Fulham he won the most heading duels as well as win the most tackles in the whole League at the time after the Palace game, on top of the goal and Penalty he won but no one pays attention to that, just the passing. 

That said, I also thought we looked better in Midfield getting that ball popping about with more ease when we did have it against City, it's the evolution we need to progress as a decent possession based Team. Soucek will never be that guy but everything else, he's invaluable to our Squad to call upon in both boxes.

[ludo21]

Haven't seen any of the Liverpool v Forest game but interesting that JWP played the full 90mins.

I was glad to see him go as thought that he added very little to us but will be interesting to see how he gets on there.

 

[BRANDED]

Classic WHO. Absolute knicker wetting school girl type nonsense. Some people dont even go to games ffs. 

GROW UP FUCKERS

[Takashi Miike]