Thursday, September 19, 2024

‘A patience game’ for West Ham fans

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[BBC]

Julen Lopetegui gives instructions to playersJulen Lopetegui gives instructions to players

[Getty Images]

It feels like West Ham fans can be quite hard to please.

Under David Moyes, they were getting results, won the Europa Conference League, but were not playing pretty football and in the end the fans were not happy with that.

They wanted attractive football and I remember quoting last season – “you’re happy to play attractive football without results?” And they were saying “yep, it’s better than what we watch every week, we pay all this money to watch rubbish under David Moyes”.

But when you have somebody that comes in with a completely different philosophy, which Julen Lopetegui does have compared to what Moyes had and the players were used to, it is going to need patience.

What I would say to West Ham fans is, we have seen what Lopetegui did and built at Wolves, which was good, and we look at what Andoni Iraola has done with Bournemouth since he arrived. He struggled in those first nine games of the season, but the owners have put trust and patience in him to build something.

It can take time when there is such a big shift in styles, it can take time for players to gel and connect and I think that is where West Ham are at right now. Given that patience, Lopetegui can get them to where they want to be, but it is a patience game.

The fans have asked for it and it will take time to transition the team from the defence mindset to become this expansive, front-footed, open team. The club made that decision to push Moyes out and bring Lopetegui in and now they have to stick with that.

Fara Williams was speaking to BBC Sport’s Nicola Pearson

An image detailing how to follow your Premier League team on BBC Sport: "On the app? Tap the bell icon to get news about your club sent to you. Signed in on a browser? Hit 'Follow' to stay up to date.An image detailing how to follow your Premier League team on BBC Sport: "On the app? Tap the bell icon to get news about your club sent to you. Signed in on a browser? Hit 'Follow' to stay up to date.

[BBC]

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