West Ham lack identity. Will Julen Lopetegui be given time to turn things around?

It was a walk of shame that reflected West Ham United’s struggles.

Edson Alvarez was unaware of where the tunnel was as he mistakenly wandered towards the corner flag following his dismissal at the City Ground, and the home fans, thriving on schadenfreude, were more than happy to alert the midfielder of his mistake.

After Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest, West Ham are also clearly heading in the wrong direction under head coach Julen Lopetegui.

A smattering of Forest supporters chorused, “You’re getting sacked in the morning” at the Spaniard who, for now at least, retains full support from the board.

This season, Lopetegui has issued more apologies than wins. After 10 league games, yielding just 11 points, West Ham lack identity and have regressed; the constant changes in formation and personnel contributing to their inconsistency, while captain Jarrod Bowen looks a shadow of his old self.

Lopetegui wants fans to reserve judgement until May, but his chances of remaining at the helm until then seem fanciful. Supporters en route to Nottingham were more intent on vetoing candidates to replace Lopetegui than endorsing him.

Majority shareholder David Sullivan tends to wait until November/December before sacking a manager midway through a season. Of the eight managers he has hired since January 2010, Avram Grant, Slaven Bilic and Manuel Pellegrini are the only ones to be jettisoned midway through their contracts.

Lopetegui, who was announced as David Moyes’ successor in May, signed a two-year deal with the club. Not renewing Moyes’ contract was the correct decision. After his four-and-a-half-year spell as manager, West Ham needed a change, but Lopetegui’s track record did not suggest he would be the right fit as he does not play an attractive style of football.

Tim Steidten, the technical director, should also be scrutinised for a summer recruitment of nine players for over £130million ($168m at the current exchange rate) of which only Maximilian Kilman, Jean-Clair Todibo and Aaron Wan-Bissaka have looked solid. Luis Guilherme, the £25million ($32.4m) addition from Brazilian side Palmeiras, was an unused substitute again, while Carlos Soler, the loanee from Paris Saint-Germain, was ineffective against Forest. A return date for the injured Niclas Fullkrug is unclear and midfielder Guido Rodriguez has struggled to make an impact.

Then there are players Lopetegui inherited, like Alvarez, who was warned by Moyes in April about his indiscipline. The midfielder was initially booked for tugging defender Murillo’s shirt and was then shown a second yellow card for a mistimed tackle on Anthony Elanga just before the break for West Ham’s third dismissal of the season.

Lopetegui did not look at Alvarez as the Mexico international walked past him after his sending-off. Alvarez’s team-mates Guilherme, Aaron Cresswell and Danny Ings also did not acknowledge him when they returned to the substitutes’ bench from their warm-ups.

Forest were everything the visitors aspire to be. They have a potent striker in Chris Woods, whose opening goal against the Hammers was his eighth league goal of this campaign, a settled midfield pairing of Ryan Yates and Nicolas Dominguez, pace on the flanks in Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi and a solid defence, which has kept four clean sheets this season, and crucially they are ensconced in the upper echelons of the table.

The home side would have subjected Lopetegui’s side to further misery but for great goalkeeping from Lukasz Fabianski late on.

“We did not deserve to win or draw the match,” Lopetegui said afterwards. “He (Alvarez) knows he needs to improve his decision making but I am the coach, I am responsible for all of them. We have to use this bad moment to push us up and forward and face the next challenge. We have to be better and more consistent.”

Lopetegui had also asked the players to unite after games against Chelsea, Liverpool, Brentford and Tottenham Hotspur. But despite his best efforts to provoke a reaction, the defeat to Forest was sealed long before Hudson-Odoi’s goal past the hour mark which put the hosts 2-0 ahead. Ola Aina’s audacious finish only confirmed the inevitable.

“It’s just an example of us not managing the game in the right way, and I think we’ve seen that on other occasions this season as well,” Fabianski told West Ham’s website. “It’s really disappointing, because we knew coming here that it was going to be a tough match and we weren’t able to keep that control.”

West Ham ended the game with a dysfunctional attack, an extraordinary combination of Michail Antonio on the left and Lucas Paqueta in a roaming false-nine role, which culminated in a listless attacking display.

Lopetegui has flattered to deceive. Failure to produce a convincing performance at home against Everton next Saturday could be the last straw.

(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)