Lopetegui lost for solutions to stop rampant Reds overwhelming Hammers
West Ham United (0) 0 v Liverpool (3) 5
By Kaz Mochlinski at the London Stadium
Premier League
Matchweek 19
Talking Points
The West Ham United club shop has replica shirts available to buy with the names of the greatest Hammers’ players of the past, such as World Cup winners, Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, and Martin Peters.
There is also an Action Man version of Bobby Moore for sale. The club has an illustrious history and rightly celebrates it. But perhaps none of the current players inspire the same level of adulation as yet.
There is admittedly huge affection among the fans for Jarrod Bowen, who has made immense progress in the past year to become the West Ham captain, at a difficult time of substantial changes for the club.
Plus the supporter base also appreciates the recruitment of Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paquetá, both fine footballers showing glimpses of their qualities, even when playing in a struggling side.
It was Kudus and Paquetá combining who forced Alisson Becker into making the solitary save which he needed to perform in the whole 90 minutes as Liverpool swept to a straightforward Sunday evening success at the London Stadium.
That occurred around 35 minutes into the game with West Ham already a goal behind, and Paquetá’s header from Kudus’s right wing cross hardly tested the goalkeeper, looping up comfortably into his arms.
Kudus shortly afterwards came closer to an equaliser, beating Alisson with a fierce low drive but seeing the ball rebound off the inside of the post. Within two minutes Liverpool had doubled their lead and the contest was effectively over.
By the time that Kudus hit the crossbar with a header from a ball played in by substitute Andy Irving from the left, late in the second half, West Ham were not even playing for pride, just damage limitation.
Kudus’s replacement, Luis Guilherme, also saw a well-struck shot in stoppage time deflected off Virgil van Dijk onto the post. But three efforts against the woodwork cannot make up for the absence of any actual attempt on target by the home team.
When Paquetá and Kudus created their two chances, in the middle of the first half, they each in turn did so from the number 10 position, to which both are best suited, but with neither one being deployed there by the Hammers’ head coach, Julen Lopetegui.
Kudus was started on the right wing before being moved to the left, while Paquetá was played in central midfield, primarily just in front of his defenders, a role that does not seem to make the most of his skill-set.
In recent weeks, Paquetá has found himself being used on the wing or alternatively leading the forward line as a lone striker, and he remains like Kudus willing to take up any role required from him by Lopetegui.
However, it has to be questioned whether facing Liverpool without a true number 10, when there are two terrific players available to fulfill that task, is the optimal strategy to decide upon.
It is made worse by constant changes of formation, starting on this occasion with 4-5-1 before switching at half-time to 5-4-1 and then 5–2-3. This was after lately having tried 4-2-3-1 and 4-1-4-1 as well as 5-1-3-1.
Lopetegui is evidently still searching for a system in which he can accommodate all of his key players, apparently attempting to adapt to the personnel that he has in his squad rather than imposing a preferred structure on them.
But experimenting and improvising is no way to face the runaway league leaders and the most in-form side in Europe, who are now unbeaten in 23 matches and have lost only once all season.
That puts into context West Ham’s modest run of four games without defeat ahead of hosting Liverpool, with wins over fellow strugglers Wolverhampton Wanderers and Southampton, plus draws with Bournemouth and Brighton & Hove Albion.
The latest capitulation in the capital’s least fan-friendly stadium led to boos at half-time and at the final whistle - and also a strong smell of cannabis swirling around the stands at the break, with home supporters seemingly self-medicating to ease their pain.
It is no surprise to hear reports emerging from Turkey that the Hammers’ hierarchy are actively engaging in sounding out managers and coaches who could potentially take over from Lopetegui sooner rather than later.
The Spaniard is understood to have been involved in confirming the suitability of the players who were recruited during the summer for an outlay of an estimated £120 million. But at present he is clearly not getting the best out of them somehow.
Despite all of Bowen’s commitment, there looks to be a lack of leadership within the West Ham squad. It was Paquetá who took over when the captain was forced off with an ankle injury, but the Brazilian was visibly uncomfortable with the armband - not only physically.
Paquetá too was given the unenviable post-match task of apologising to the Hammers’ fans for the performance against Liverpool - which was done through the club’s social media output, with none of the players being prepared to face questions from the media that were not contractually obligatory.
Kurt Zouma is said to be badly missed around the dressing room this season, and the influential Aaron Cresswell is now very much a veteran, playing less frequently, and becoming ever more peripheral to the first-team set-up.
There is though some hope for the future, with a young midfielder on loan at Bristol City, 20-year-old George Earthy, a product of the West Ham Academy, which is continuing to bring through promising talents.
Finding a way to get Earthy and a few other highly-regarded Academy prospects involved in the senior side may be one way out of the dark period that the Hammers are presently suffering.
Earthy might never equal Moore in leading England to a World Cup victory, but having the club shop stocking momentos of his career in the future would still be an admirable achievement.
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