They say it never rains but it pours during moments of adversity, and while Julen Lopetegui waits for Niclas Fullkrug to return to action following a calf injury, it appears West Ham United’s head coach could require treatment for the same injury.
During the chastening 5-1 Carabao Cup loss to Liverpool, courtesy of goals from Diogo Jota (two), Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo (two), Lopetegui injured his calf when summer signing Crysencio Summerville missed a chance in front of the away end. Lopetegui jumped in the air and landed awkwardly. Towards the latter stages of the game, he remained seated in his technical area.
“I have one little injury in my calf,” said Lopetegui, who limped into his post-match press conference.
Fullkrug, the £27million ($36m) signing from Borussia Dortmund, has returned to training but is not fit enough to warrant a place in the matchday squad. To compound matters, Lopetegui will be without Edson Alvarez for this weekend’s game against Brentford following his dismissal at Anfield.
West Ham initially responded well to last Saturday’s disappointing 3-0 loss to Chelsea. The scoreline was 1-1 at half-time against Liverpool but the team capitulated after the interval.
Here, The Athletic looks at the main talking points from the loss.
What did Lopetegui say?
West Ham have conceded 12 goals in their past four games, they have also conceded immediately after half-time in back-to-back matches and the loss to Liverpool was Lopetegui’s heaviest defeat as West Ham’s head coach. But the Spaniard felt his team did not deserve to lose by the 5-1 scoreline and cited decisions going against his side as a contributing factor.
“I think we played one of our better matches, but you can’t say that when you look at the scoreline,” Lopetegui told West Ham’s website. “We didn’t deserve to lose by this scoreline, as we had a lot of chances. We suffered one goal, which was offside in the first half, and that’s the reason why I love VAR (which is not used at this stage of the competition).
“In the second half we could have had a penalty, and the next action they score the second goal. After this, we did very, very well and were still in the match until 70 minutes. We had many clear chances to level the match but didn’t score. When we went down to 10 players, it became a lot more difficult, but sometimes this can happen.”
Lopetegui has full support from the board and will hope to see a response in upcoming games against Brentford and Ipswich Town.
What is happening with Alvarez?
Although Alvarez played a role in Jarell Quansah conceding an own goal, the midfielder’s loss of form remains a concern. Alvarez was sent off against Liverpool having received two yellow cards.
“It’s a second yellow card, it can happen,” Lopetegui told Sky Sports in his post-match interview. “We have to deal with situations like this. After the players had to make a big effort but sometimes these types of difficulties are an opportunity to show character.”
Alvarez is yet to rediscover his form from last season. His midfield partnership with Guido Rodriguez has not gelled and his lack of discipline is yet to improve. The Mexico international has been cautioned in West Ham’s past three games. He received the most yellow cards (11) by any West Ham player in the league in 2023-24.
In June, Alvarez, who has previously had interest from Chelsea and Bayern Munich, was sidelined for two months having sustained a hamstring injury while on international duty with Mexico at the Copa America. Not having a pre-season season could be a factor behind his lack of match sharpness. He is yet to play 90 minutes in his six appearances this season.
How did Soler play?
Since joining on a season-long loan from Paris Saint-Germain, Carlos Soler has had to be patient. He played 20 minutes on his debut against Fulham, 36 minutes against Chelsea and was handed his first full start at Anfield.
The versatile midfielder was a first-choice transfer target for Lopetegui. In order to facilitate Soler’s arrival, the head coach sanctioned James Ward-Prowse’s departure to Nottingham Forest on a season-long loan. Lopetegui felt his team needed more creativity in midfield. The signing was driven by Lopetegui because Soler can play as a central midfielder, a winger or as a No 10.
When he sought the opinion of former West Ham player Pablo Fornals, the latter urged Soler to join the club. The 27-year-old had a nervy first half against Liverpool, having the second-fewest touches (11) of any West Ham player. Forward Danny Ings had the fewest with eight.
But Soler’s performance gradually improved after the interval. His shot on target after the hour mark was his first chance of note. Post-match, Lopetegui said he was pleased with Soler’s performance. Following Alvarez’s suspension, the Spaniard is in contention to start successive games.
The Kilman-Todibo partnership
This was Maximilian Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo’s second start as a defensive duo since the win over Bournemouth in the second round of the Carabao Cup in August. In the first half they had a solid performance and coped well with Liverpool’s attack.
This season Lopetegui’s preferred defensive partnership has been Kilman and Konstantinos Mavropanos. Todibo, who joined from Nice on a season-long loan with an obligation to buy for £34m, has been the third-choice defender due to a lack of fitness.
It is why Lopetegui has been patient in integrating him into the starting XI. The French centre-back could have scored against Liverpool, but he also could have defended better for Gakpo’s second goal, which was deflected in via the defender. But Todibo deserves a run in the team ahead of Mavropanos, who still struggles with consistency.
It is understandable Lopetegui does not know his best starting XI given the number of summer signings. Those close to the head coach say it was always going to be tough given four of his first seven games have been difficult fixtures. But the pressing issues remain as he does not have a settled midfield, he has alternated the forward role between Fullkrug, Ings, Michail Antonio, Jarrod Bowen and has a porous defence.
But the defensive duo of Kilman and Todibo and the additions of Emerson Palmieri and summer signing Aaron Wan-Bissaka could help solve that. It has not been the desired start to life as head coach for Lopetegui, but he is confident things will eventually get better.
(Top photo: Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
