West Ham will review Julen Lopetegui’s position if they lose at home to Everton on Saturday. Although the hope is that the manager will turn the situation around, he is under increasing pressure after a poor start and another setback would leave him hanging by a thread.
There have been mixed signals over Lopetegui’s immediate future and the sense at the start of this week was that the Everton game was not viewed as make or break. David Sullivan, West Ham’s majority shareholder, has a history of sticking by his managers. But the club are hugely alarmed to be only six points above the bottom three after last weekend’s defeat by Nottingham Forest. At the minimum it is believed that losing again would prompt West Ham to use the international break to line up short- and long-term candidates to take over.
A potential issue for West Ham is a lack of obvious replacements for Lopetegui, who has struggled to introduce his style of play since replacing David Moyes in the summer. They have previously been lukewarm on Graham Potter, the former Chelsea manager, and the level of their interest in the former Borussia Dortmund manager Edin Terzic remains unclear. Terzic and Potter are out of work.
West Ham, who overlooked Hansi Flick and Paulo Fonseca when they appointed Lopetegui, are believed to have made background checks on Sebastian Hoeness, Kasper Hjulmand and Roger Schmidt. Hoeness is regarded as an unrealistic target given that Stuttgart are in the Champions League. However the fact that internal analysis is being conducted is a sign that Lopetegui needs a win against Everton, who are two points behind West Ham.
Focus has also fallen on the technical director, Tim Steidten, after West Ham’s transfer business. The club spent more than £100m on signings last summer but are yet to see a return on their investment.
West Ham have struggled defensively and have been predictable in attack, and discipline has been a problem. Edson Álvarez, the Mexico midfielder, picked up his second red card of the season against Forest and Mohammed Kudus will be suspended until December after being hit with an extra two-match ban for his behaviour during last month’s 4-1 defeat by Tottenham.
Kudus missed the Forest and Manchester United games after an initial three-match suspension but the winger, who was due to return after the visit from Everton, has been given an additional punishment and fined £60,000 for clashing with Micky van de Ven and Richarlison.
Kudus will miss the trip to Newcastle on 25 November and the home game against Arsenal on 30 November and not be available until West Ham visit Leicester on 3 December. West Ham have been fined £30,000 for failing to control their players.
Meanwhile Enzo Maresca has admitted Cole Palmer is a doubt for Chelsea’s game at home to Arsenal on Sunday. The attacking midfielder was hurt by a poor challenge from Lisandro Martínez during Chelsea’s draw with United and is yet to train this week.
