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

[goose]

Feels to me like they’ve already started thinking about who will come in next summer.

Unless things go horribly wrong we’ll limp through the rest of the season and finish somewhere around 13th.

[Russ of the BML]

Personally, I am now resigned to the fact that we won't improve much more under Lope. We have some excellent players and a very good blend of players with different styles, ages and personalities. Yet, each week I see nothing that tells me that they are gaining anything from him. They just look a little lost to me. They look like they know what they want to do but are just either being held back or they are just confused by being over-coached or under-coached. I really can't be sure. 

But we will be good enough to win a number of games that see us mid-table. We will flit from good overall performances to shambles of performances and anything in between but no more than just 'good'. We will do enough to remain clear of relegation but will remain without an identity and seemingly without any major improvement. 

We are like a yacht without a rudder, look good above the water but just has no direction. They are playing in games and, to me, it just seems its all a bit 'let's just see how this pans out'. There's no real control of the tempo or control of the game itself. The players are just 'playing' and seeing what happens. 

I have no fear of relegation. Just a fear of time being wasted. I feel no anger or resentment to Lope, just apathy really. Apathy to him and the whole club. I said to my pal yesterday, to me it all seems a bit bland and uninspiring and all rather Manuel Pellegrini all over again. 

Shame. Club had a great opportunity to move on again. Wasted. 

[Texas Iron]

As I’ve said many times…Sullivan…

Once a Barrow Boy Porno seller…Always a Barrow Boy Porno seller…

[Jaan Kenbrovin]

The Team played like they were lost 




 

It was a similar performance to every other match. We were pretty shocking at the back and lucky not to concede 3 goals.

We offered little in attack and relied heavily on set pieces.

It was nothing like the Bournemouth performance today. 

 

Nonsense. We were pretty lucky to draw both games. The only differences were scoring from open play, and getting an equaliser instead of conceding one. The patterns of play were the same, as were the tactics and changes.

[Massive Attack]

The Team played like they were lost 



 

It was a similar performance to every other match. We were pretty shocking at the back and lucky not to concede 3 goals.

We offered little in attack and relied heavily on set pieces.

It was nothing like the Bournemouth performance today. 

[Jaan Kenbrovin]

The Team played like they were lost 


 

It was a similar performance to every other match. We were pretty shocking at the back and lucky not to concede 3 goals.

We offered little in attack and relied heavily on set pieces.

[Massive Attack]

Some ain't going to like hearing it but I honestly couldn't give a fuck. Lopetegui and the Team get a pass today. Not that we didn't play well, we really didn't. However in the context of what happened this week, straight after a decent performance on Monday away to Bournemouth, I can't be too critical of the way we played and what Lopetegui has had to contend with being out the Country for 3 days attending to his Dads death/funeral. He wouldn't have been around the Training ground much, if at all and it does matter. 

The Team played like they were lost and that wasn't the same Team on the Monday. It wasn't the performance we wanted but it can be understandable with so much going on off the pitch in the build up.

If others want to be more harsh about him today all considered, then fill your boots but it's not realistic.

That said, they need to be back at it at Southampton and they'll be no excuses for a poor result/performance there..

 

[goose]

I get that the club is an absolute mess at the moment, and anyone trying to work under Sullivan is doing so with one hand tied behind his back.

I really wanted Lopetegui to work out, I was hoping we’d be getting a coach who would deliver a style & structure that the best Spanish sides have……. But I just don’t see it.

I just don’t see what he’s trying to deliver. What’s our style of play? What kind of team are we?

it’s been half a season and I’m no nearer to knowing.
we’re clueless with the ball & far too easy to play against when we don’t have the ball.

[Sir Alf]

Great article in the Mail well worth a read. Essentially repeats what many of us on here say and have known for years. Sullivan is the problem.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... mouth.html

 

[factory seconds]

Southampton are set to appoint Ivan Juric as their new manager.

I reckon he will do well there, was brilliant at Torino.

apparently his favourite bands are naplam death and carcass.

wonder how he's going to put up with the standard dressing room playlist of 800 flavours of generic algorithm suggested afrobeat and ed sheeran's dreariest dirges.

[goose]

Southampton are set to appoint Ivan Juric as their new manager.

I reckon he will do well there, was brilliant at Torino.

[Massive Attack]

the reality is that sixteen games in none of us are anywhere near certain what our best starting eleven is.



 

Yes we are..

Fabianski 

Wan-Bissaka Todibo Kilman Emerson

Soler Soucek Paqueta 

Bowen Fullkrug Kudus

[,]

Irrespective of jalopy’s character traits and what makes a good coach, a successful coach, are dull coaches a liability,  the reality is that sixteen games in none of us are anywhere near certain what our best starting eleven is.

Manager/coaches have to be much more media savvy than in yesteryear and some have coped better than others. I look back at our past managers and realise that I have a lot of respect for the likes of Lyall and Greenwood, possibly Bonzo ( mainly due to his playing days perhaps ) but since then respect hasn’t come into it they are just blokes passing through and doing a job.

[Massive Attack]

Lopetegui doesn't have a great percy but what I do like about him is his character. He clearly has a pair and ain't afraid to have it out with trappy player's like Todibo and doesn't shirk responsibility for fuck all. Don't hear him make endless excuses, always owning it. I do like that about his character a lot. His values seem spot on too..


 

[Massive Attack]

Amd I sincerely apologise for that torturous mental imagery that's ingrained into everyone's conscious now.

[wils]

The only thing I ultimately care about from a manager is how the Team plays and performs. I'd even have put up with that fat slug Grant still in charge asleep everyday at his training ground desk in front of his laptop with his pants around his ankles, just as long as the Team did well on most matchdays. 

Charisma and the like is just a nice Brucey bonus but its not that important for me.

I agree in principle. But there does seem to be some correlation between being a good successful manager and having some personality. The latter is obviously downstream of the former. As in if you are a good at what you do you will exude confidence and thus charm. I can think of a few managers that were 'characters' and not particularly good. But I can't think of any dull managers who very good at their job. Perhaps WHO can suggest some.

[Massive Attack]

The only thing I ultimately care about from a manager is how the Team plays and performs on the pitch. I'd even have put up with that fat slug Grant still in charge asleep everyday at his training ground desk in front of his laptop with his pants around his ankles, just as long as the Team did well on most matchdays. 

Charisma and the like is just a nice Brucey bonus but its not that important for me.

[wils]

Hoping we get some consistency from Lopetegui, seen a few positives recently and would love it to work out for him. He comes across as a decent person and doesn't strike me as someone who will bitch about the fans.

 

I agree with the first bit. Definitely some positives and let's hope things improve further, especially with a transfer window coming up. 

But as someone who won't bitch about the fans? This isn't becuase he is decent, it's becuase he has so little curiosity about us he would struggle to marshall his thoughts to form an opinion let alone bitch about us. He's a soulless and charmless man.

I was glad to see the back of Allardyce, but I respect that he was an interesting enough character to have it within him to hate us.

[Massive Attack]

Amorims the real deal as a manager. No danger about that. All he needs is the time to sort out a Club full of dogshit which won't be anytime soon. They are a mess. 

[lowlife]

Amorim is doing well.

Laughing at Sky Sports (and other media) and their mental gymnastics - he wins a game and he's a genius, he loses a game and it's not his fault as it's not his team. After the first minute goal vs. Ipswich, in his first game, it was all "he's already got them playing better".

BBC running a headline page about Rashford looking for a new challenge, with multiple linked articles about Amorim's management style, and a HYS page just shows you what a bunch of insufferable cunts the media are. Nothing against Amorim, he actually comes across as pretty decent, but I do hope they fuck up and become a mid table team at best.

[lowlife]

Hoping we get some consistency from Lopetegui, seen a few positives recently and would love it to work out for him. He comes across as a decent person and doesn't strike me as someone who will bitch about the fans.

Nowhere near sacking form. Hope we turn up against Brighton, our home record vs them is appalling.

[Monsieur merde de cheval]

Surely the Brighton game should be last chance saloon for the Spanish fraud. Lose and he should be spending Christmas like the turkey that he is.

You're in the book.
Classless wally

[twoleftfeet]

Amorim is doing well.

[factory seconds]

our football under Lops is sufficiently batshit and entertaining to keep me interested. if we settle down into competently mediocre but ultimately boring, that's when i'll start calling for his head.

[Massive Attack]

It's not just about stats Massive Attack. Stats can be skewed by the clubs that you manager. Avram Grant had a 67% win percentage as manager of one of the best Chelsea teams ever.

Lopetegui is a 'loser' because of the following:

- Sacked after 18 months as Porto manager having won NOTHING there (which is a huge underachievement in that league)

- Sacked as Real Madrid manager within four months for gross underachievement

- Sacked as Sevilla manager after a dreadful start to the 2022-2023 season

Anyway, it's just my opinion. I don't have a pathological desire to be proven right and if he turns it around and gets us into European football this season, I will praise him for it. Much like when I came on here and put my hands up and praised Paqueta after the Europa Conference League final for his performances during the second half of the 2022-2023 season (although his form has fallen off a cliff since then).

 

OK, so neither Stats nor Trophies in the Cabinet work for you. That's fine, we'll easily discard of those facts..

His stint at Porto, although having not won a trophy within his only full season in charge there actually produced a points total that normally yields a League title. 82 points and even lost 1 game fewer than eventual winners Benfica with also a +61 goal difference. Furthermore in that 1st season he also went on to reach the Quarter-Finals of the Champions League where he even beat Guardiolas Bayern Munich in the 1st Leg before eventually getting knocked out in the 2nd leg in Germany.

His time as Real Madrid manager if you followed it at the time was marred from the beginning due to the fall out from getting Sacked from the Spanish job on the eve of the World Cup. Even though he had prepared them excellently leading up to that point (they subsequently bombed out straight away in the World Cup group stages). Yes, he had to take responsibility for how it transpired with his pre-agreed contract with Real Madrid being leaked out (anybody would find it difficult to turn the job down) but it was still a hasty decision to sack him on the eve of the World Cup by a highly controversial Spanish Boss who later got the sack himself. So it seemed doomed from the very beginning starting out in his new high pressure job under such controversial circumstances and although he had some good/bad results, they decided to sack him. It certainly wasn't a straightforward start under so much controversy going in to the job but one he has to own.

As for his Sevilla record, you seriously want to question his impressive record there? Not only winning a prestigious European Trophy in his 1st season in charge, he also led them to 3 consecutive back-to-back Champions League qualifications via the Spanish League and in his last full season in charge got them in a genuine La Liga Title race. Only to eventually fall away in the end due to the Board not back him in the January window in 2nd place and the Squad decimated by injury (sound familiar?). He was also widely praised in the game for his Sevilla Teams playing the most attractive, free-flowing, attacking Football around in Europe had beat the likes of Roma, Man Utd and serial winner Contes Inter Milan in the Final on the way to European glory. 

Now with all that bearing in mind, are we honestly suggesting all his body of work as a Coach bringing on excellent youth talents, trophies, win percentage, goal scoring and winning record isn't good enough to manage a Team like West Ham? In the words of David Beckham, "be honest"...

'Loser Lop', indeed

You're telling me having West Ham (a team that finished 9th last season) sit in 14th place in the league after nearly half a season having spent £150 million in the summer is not an underachievement?

 

 

By using your logic, you would have sacked Iraola last season after their 6-1 thumping having only won once against Burnely after 11 games sitting 17th in the table on -18 GD. Iraola who spent well over 100M Net in the summer transfer market. Now look where they are after very similar starts to their 1st season in charge in the Premier League under 'Loser Iraola'...