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Episode 038 - Is It Time for Lopetegui to Go?! Leicester Match Reaction
35 Plays12 days ago
In today episode Jacob and Tom have a chat about the game against Leicester. Having not played well in the past two games, the conversation is centred on if Lopetegui will survive after how poorly we've played. Then the boys discuss who would preplace the Spaniard if he was to be sacked!
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Transcript
Introduction to GSPN West Ham Podcast
00:00:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
Hello guys and welcome back to another episode of the daily GSPN West Ham Podcast. I'm joined by Jacob. Say hi mate.
00:00:15
Jacob
Hello, how are you?
00:00:18
Global Sports Podcast Network
Not great. I don't think any of us are. It's just bleak isn't it.
Optimism and Disappointment Post-Newcastle
00:00:23
Global Sports Podcast Network
You know after the um the Newcastle game I think we were all so positive. We looked so good. We thought oh might maybe we've turned a corner.
00:00:31
Global Sports Podcast Network
but It looks like we haven't. After two pretty disappointing games, um the most recent games, I mean, losing both of them in pretty lackluster fashion, to be honest, we look just really poor.
Hosts' Personal Updates and West Ham's Performance
00:00:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
Obviously, we haven't spoken in a while. We've been busy. I've got a new job. Jake's been busy as well. So there's not been too much content, but when it's been so bad,
00:00:55
Global Sports Podcast Network
is kind of it's kind of difficult to motivate yourself to even talk about West Ham in a way that's anything other than kind of despair, to be honest. What what are your thoughts?
Lopategi's Management and Relegation Risk
00:01:05
Jacob
yeah you're right i mean i think possibly we got a little bit carried away with the with the new castle result and and that gave us a little bit of false hope in in terms of our expectations of what we were going to get going forward and i think i think now is the time to be honest i think we've heard that the um the border having a ah ah discussion ah regarding Lopategi's future. So yeah, that'll be very interesting. I think ah think most Westam fans are sort of in agreement that possibly we're now at the situation where
00:01:57
Jacob
We just can't afford to to keep dropping points because we are getting dangerously close to that bottom three. So yeah, i I'm on the um'm on the side of um find someone else. you know
West Ham's Missed Opportunities and Defense Issues
00:02:16
Jacob
No bad feeling towards Lopategi. It's just what he's tried to do just hasn't worked.
00:02:23
Jacob
um and I think for us, with the but the amount of money that they've spent, ah we should be doing better than we are. um And the performances we've seen haven't been haven't been good enough. you know we Against Leicester, we we were good. like We had a lot of opportunities, but it's just, ah you know how did we not score until 90 plus three or whatever it was?
00:02:54
Jacob
um Yeah, you just feel, you just feel under moise. We would have, we would have come away with all three points in that game. Um, you know, it we kind of in a situation now where we, we took that time we had with moise for granted a little bit, because now we're in a situation where, you know, we don't have an identity.
00:03:21
Jacob
we
Identity Crisis Compared to Moyes Era
00:03:22
Jacob
don't have any kind of hope when we turn it on, when we turn the game on and with Moyes at least we knew you knew, we knew what we were going to get and it didn't always work and we weren't always good but we had a way of playing and we stuck by it and we often did get results from it but we haven't seen that under Lopategi we've seen players looking pedestrian and, you know, this huge amount of space that the opposition have to run into unchallenged and then just taking so many shots against us and then, you know, conceding as many as Ipswich Town, which shouldn't happen. um Yeah, it's just a bit doom and gloom, isn't it? Let's be honest.
00:04:12
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, definitely. I'd like to talk more about the Leicester game because, yeah, as you mentioned, we were for long periods of time, the better team, or ah maybe, maybe not even the better team.
00:04:16
Jacob
Mm hmm. Yeah.
00:04:25
Global Sports Podcast Network
We were on the front foot a lot more. So playing devil's advocate slightly, can you blame Moyes for the players not being able to score? Because like tactically, could we really have done
00:04:36
Jacob
Well, I'm not sure I'm not sure it's really Moises fault, to be honest, but um
00:04:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
Not my, sorry. God's sake. Oh, maybe that's my brain. Like, say, would you get more of that?
00:04:44
Jacob
Yeah, he's just, he's just hoping he comes back.
00:04:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, Lopategi, I mean, sorry.
00:04:50
Jacob
Yeah.
00:04:51
Global Sports Podcast Network
Because, you know, if you actually look at the game, there were long periods where we should have scored. And what is it that Lopategi can do himself that makes the player a score when it seems like on the face of it, his system has put us in the position where we're getting a lot of chances?
00:05:07
Jacob
Well, yeah, I get what you're saying. and But I do think against that Leicester team, you know that's just the bare minimum what we showed out there. That is what we should do against a newly promoted team. you know um Have much of the ball and have a lot of opportunities, but the fact that we couldn't take them just shows that sort of lack of confidence and cutting edge that we've got at the minute, which all stems from
00:05:42
Jacob
ah how bad we've been in general and then that comes from you know the manager and not instilling enough belief or his way of playing you know maybe he has instilled his way of playing but it doesn't work clearly because we can take all these shots that go and just not score there was obviously On a different day, it could have gone completely different. you know that
Defensive Concerns Against Leicester
00:06:09
Jacob
that go that um That shot that was cleared off the line, that might have gone in, or the one that went in, which ah you know was given as a foul on the keeper, could have been given.
00:06:21
Jacob
you know um But at the end of the day, when it's 3-1, that's not just us not taking our chances. That's an accumulation of being wasteful and being too easy to to get, you know, for the opposition to score because they had very few chances and we shouldn't, you know, we shouldn't be walking away, you know, from the game like we did adding to our negative goal difference when we were the better team for the majority of the game.
00:06:57
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, I ah completely agree. I think kind of countering my own point is that, yeah, we were the better team for parts of the game and we should have scored and there's not much lopate you can do to actually physically make the player score. At the other end of the pitch, we shouldn't be conceding three goals against Leicester. It should just never happen. like How can we expect to compete with any team in the Premier League when when we're conceding 3 against a newly promoted Leicester who I think most people have probably tipped to go straight back down, which, yeah, it's really poor. And if if he if we hadn't conceded, if we could have just kept the dominance,
00:07:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
We would have then won the game from bringing this striker that you know we we signed who had so much hype and has been out for so long, someone that we've been looking for you know when it comes to leading the line. He comes on and he makes an impact. So if we're just more defensively solid and we have better defensive solidity, I think Fulcrum comes on and he wins the game for us because he did come on and he did score.
00:08:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
And that's something that all the rest of the players hadn't done the whole game. So, yeah, it's really frustrating and you you just... I don't really know what to say, to be honest. I don't know if... I don't know if Lopategi is the man or if he's not, to be honest. And we'll talk about that a little bit more just after this quick advert.
00:08:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
OK, so rounding off all of the talk from that game, Lopategi, you gave
Lopategi vs. Moyes: Management Style Comparison
00:08:52
Global Sports Podcast Network
you know a little bit of your thoughts about whether Lopategi is the man to take us into the future. Kind of to summarize, why do you think what you think about Lopategi?
00:09:03
Jacob
I the way I have thought about it is I just imagine what David Moyes could have done if he'd had that money to play around with and those players you know that's that's kind of the way I've seen it because that's the only thing you can really we can really compare it with um and I think the job he has compared to the jobs the job Moyes had should realistically be easier. you know um Not to say that all the other teams around us haven't also improved and aren't also making huge signings and you know progressing, but there isn't any way we should be going backwards. Having brought someone in with fresh new ideas and
00:09:59
Jacob
all these exciting players, you know, and then going in the wrong direction completely. It's just, you know, we remember at the start of the season where everyone said, wow, West Ham have won the the transfer window and they're going to be so good this season. And that is we we didn't really want to say too much about it. We didn't want to you know, over-hype it. But in the back of our heads, we were thinking, yeah, this is where we're in, a you know, we're in for a good chance this season of finishing well. But we've seen basically the opposite. And, you know, we've seen the difference the new manager can have on a team. You know, prime example being Van Nesoro, not saying that he's the sole reason why they beat us 3-1.
00:10:54
Jacob
but he's no doubt his ideas are a lot different to what Steve Coopers were and that I don't know whether they're better, I don't know whether he's the best man for the job but you know they made that decision because they thought it was in the club's best interest and I'm sure it will pay off. It's a great start for him and that's just going to fill him with confidence. If we if we can also do that, then we'll be thinking, why on earth did we ever hire him in the first place? I don't like the whole um idea of
00:11:38
Jacob
hiring a manager who's been
Managerial Replacement and Leadership Concerns
00:11:41
Jacob
sacked by a different Premier League club, you know like ah a struggling Premier League club as well um in Wolves. i That always sat a little bit funny with me that he would do you know so much better at West Ham than he did at Wolves, but I'm not sure why he would. you know He's got all these great players that were brought in.
00:12:07
Jacob
but he's just basically showing that, you know, what what he's done so far isn't bright. If they decide to keep him and give him more time, then they're basically just going to put a huge amount of pressure on themselves and, you know, the fan base is just going to get more and more agitated and, you know, yeah, I can't see it happening where they're going to leave it much longer.
00:12:35
Jacob
um this has got to be the nail in the coffin really for me i don't i don't think i don't think it's going to be good for lapategi um and you know i don't know if you want to talk about some of the people we'll link with i don't know if you'd planned on that um yeah
00:12:52
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, that's literally what I was about to ask you. Who, after all of that, would you say is a successor who is able to take us in a positive direction?
00:13:02
Jacob
So the
Evaluating Managerial Candidates
00:13:04
Jacob
three main names that i've I've seen thrown around have been Graham Potter, Conseil Sal, and Edin
00:13:14
Global Sports Podcast Network
Add in dosage.
00:13:16
Jacob
Terzic, who, Terzic for me would be my number one choice.
00:13:17
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:13:21
Global Sports Podcast Network
Really.
00:13:23
Jacob
I just think he, I think coming from Dortmund,
00:13:31
Jacob
you know I think I think that's exactly what we need to be honest he's he's got he he's been was he assistant under slavam village so that he already knows exactly he already knows more than the other two do likely probably more than lopategi does maybe not now or did when you know when he first started um he's
00:13:42
Global Sports Podcast Network
was He was. He was part of the coaching team. He knows the club.
00:14:00
Jacob
Being at Dortmund, he's young. you know I think he's only 40. He's got great connections. um He managed for Krug. And I just think out of the three, he's probably my the most exciting for me. I don't think Potter is who we need.
00:14:26
Jacob
i think That's another scenario of giving a giving a manager who's failed at a different Premier League team a chance at our club You know taking a huge gamble um And yeah, I mean cons a cell would also be very good. I think I think he either way I think if they pick one of those two, you know, I think We'd be in better hands
00:14:53
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, I think that's fair. My um my my counterpoints would be Ed in terms of it is obviously linked. Do you think he even takes the job? That's one question because you know that right now it's a very difficult situation to come into and as a manager who doesn't have like huge names on his CV and doesn't have a kind of
00:15:03
Jacob
Um.
00:15:16
Global Sports Podcast Network
backlog of taking teams from struggling to performing well you know so my potential question marks would be if he even takes a job and then if he does is he more used to being in a more positive environment they they would be my question marks with him and that actually i think i would probably give it to grey and potter to be honest i know obviously you you say about how he failed at a Premier League club and he wasn't amazing at chelsea but he also wasn't given a lot of time i think he was definitely sacked too early and he'd done amazing things at brighton he he was unbelievably good you know he was part of the kind of change from uh kind of not a yo-yo club but what was a newly promoted team that was kind of just staying in the league every year to what they are effectively now he was the person that kind of catalyzed that change so
00:15:49
Jacob
Mm hmm.
00:16:12
Global Sports Podcast Network
For me, I think he is someone that has proven track record in the Premier League. you know And failing at Chelsea isn't like an uncommon thing.
00:16:18
Jacob
Yeah.
00:16:23
Global Sports Podcast Network
but How many managers actually do really well at Chelsea?
00:16:25
Jacob
Mm
00:16:26
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's really not very many.
00:16:28
Jacob
hmm.
00:16:28
Global Sports Podcast Network
So I think one of the the kind of one of the only reasons they're doing well now is because they signed Cole Palmer. He's kind of managed to galvanize their form and lift their squad up to a place where it is now, where they're really doing well. But before Cole Palmer Peck came in, they they were really struggling. You know, they've spent an astronomical amount of money. They just pump money in like nobody's business. And now they're doing well. But up until then, there wasn't really anyone else that had done amazing things. You know, Mauricio Focccino had done okay, but he still got sacked.
00:16:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
So is it that Graham Potter did a really bad job? Or is it just that Chelsea is such a volatile environment where they're so willing to sack people at the drop of the hat when they're not doing, or they're not getting the results that they need?
00:17:11
Global Sports Podcast Network
So yeah, I just really like the idea of Graham Potter. you know He's he someone that doesn't have a job right now. So it's not like we're trying to pull him away from somewhere else. um And I wanted him actually instead of Lopatee.
00:17:21
Jacob
Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
00:17:26
Global Sports Podcast Network
And I think this is something that people forget as well. We had talks with other people like we were potentially going to get ruben amaran He had a meeting with the owners, but he then decided against it or the club decided against it Someone decided it wasn't going to happen. So It's either Amarin didn't enjoy the meeting and didn't think that the club were going to give him what he needed. Or on the flip side, it was the club didn't want Amarin, which to me is astounding. like Why would they not want Amarin? It doesn't really make any sense. So just assuming that we're going to be able to pull managers away from other clubs is, I don't know, it is difficult for me. and then
00:18:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
I think any manager that we are able to pull away from another club is going to come from a smaller club. So how can we expect them to perform any better than someone who actually has had experience in the league, leak you know? So yeah, for me, it would be Grand Potter. We're going to go to another advert. And then when we get back, I would like to discuss what has to happen from this very second onwards to the next game, the next week, or the next month.
00:18:28
Global Sports Podcast Network
so that Lopategi keeps his job, and
Critical Upcoming Game Against Wolves
00:18:31
Global Sports Podcast Network
what do you think will cause him to be sacked?
00:18:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
Okay, so yeah, like I said before, what has to happen from now up until the next game, the next 90 minutes for Lopategi to not be sacked in that time and not be sacked immediately after that game?
00:19:12
Global Sports Podcast Network
Because he's not been sacked yet. And for me, I think if they were gonna sack him, they probably would have already done it.
00:19:14
Jacob
Mm hmm.
00:19:16
Global Sports Podcast Network
They would have said, look, this game, if you lose, you're sacked. So what do you think?
00:19:21
Jacob
Well, I don't I don't. I think maybe. I don't know whether that is a conversation they would have had. I know, obviously, he would have felt the pressure and known of the um the risk of not winning that game.
00:19:40
Jacob
But I don't know whether they they would have been waiting out until this meeting for you know to give him any kind of indication of that. um But ah what what needs to happen is, well, we need to kind of look at it both ways, if you know whether we still have the same manager for that game or not.
00:20:03
Jacob
um So, you know, if he stays, then it's the same pressure, if not more, that, you know, his job's on the line and something's got to happen um where he, you know, gets something more out of these players and
00:20:26
Jacob
actually gets a run of form going basically and that that starts with a win or at least a good performance and a good result you know at least a point it has to be it has to be because otherwise we find ourselves in a precarious situation with the teams below us starting to gain some ground on us um so we can't leave that too late basically um and yeah it is precarious and he will be feeling more under pressure than he has which you know we probably thought wasn't possible because of all the bad performances and results we've seen um but yeah I think it's we've just got we've got to see similar to what we saw against Leicester but with more you know
00:21:19
Jacob
um with more goals, with more, you know, cutting edge than the the opposition.
00:21:26
Global Sports Podcast Network
Thank you.
00:21:26
Jacob
It has to be um we can't be. We can't be conceding another three. You know, if that means, right, Fabianski's had his time.
00:21:38
Jacob
Now it's, you know, we need to make that change. Whether it's starting Bowen because of how how good he looked when he did move there. then do that.
00:21:48
Jacob
Or if four krugs ready to start a game starting because he's shown what he can do in that little time that he was on the pitch. Um, and yeah, just get the ball to him basically and let him take shots because he's it an excellent finisher.
00:22:00
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah
00:22:06
Jacob
So let's just, let's just pray basically.
00:22:11
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, I think that's kind of what it's coming to, isn't it? You know, we're playing Wolves at home next game. The Lopategi Darby, that's a bloody mouthful. um You know, also Max Killman facing his old team, so...
00:22:24
Jacob
Mm hmm.
00:22:25
Global Sports Podcast Network
We have to win. I think we have to win. We don't really have a choice at this point. If it's a draw or a loss, I don't think he lasts at all, to be honest. Um, I think we need to, he, he has to make a statement with a team that he plays and the way that they play, because, you know, if, if he can't get a performance in this game, then when is he going to be able to, because he's not been able to do it against good teams.
00:22:36
Jacob
Yeah.
00:22:47
Jacob
yeah
00:22:49
Global Sports Podcast Network
and he's not been able to do it against the bad teams. He's occasionally done it against some of the mediocre teams, and occasionally we've beaten the bad teams, but that's kind of it.
00:22:51
Jacob
Yeah.
00:22:57
Jacob
Yeah.
00:22:57
Global Sports Podcast Network
You know, we're conceding early way too frequently, our discipline's not great.
00:22:58
Jacob
Yeah.
00:23:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
um So you just hope that if there's ever a time that he really just puts his all into it, it has to be now. And yeah, I can't see him lasting if we don't beat wolves, to be honest.
00:23:11
Jacob
Yeah.
00:23:14
Global Sports Podcast Network
um I also think another point when it comes to like looking at other managers that I've just thought of is we also have to make sure that we're able to capitalize when managers are available.
00:23:28
Global Sports Podcast Network
because they can get snapped up so quickly. you know If we leave it two or three weeks, we could be in the position where
00:23:32
Jacob
Yeah.
Timing of Managerial Changes
00:23:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
there's no managers available.
00:23:37
Global Sports Podcast Network
And then what do we do? We have to just kind of stick with it.
00:23:38
Jacob
Yeah.
00:23:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
So making the manager change at the right time, I think is perfect, but we have to not do it too quickly, but we also can't do it too slowly because then our whole season could be you know a complete write-off, which it seems like it's already kind of heading that way, which is really sad.
00:23:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
you know is needed christmas and we're sat what are we 13th 14th so sad it's really sad um but yeah i just hope this this game against all this is so huge and we need a big performance and yeah hopefully like you said it full quick back i think that's a really positive thing and we just have to try and be hopeful i guess that's all we really can do
00:23:59
Jacob
fourteen
00:24:02
Jacob
Yeah.
00:24:19
Jacob
Yeah. OK, so on that cheery note, um we'll end it there. Thank you very much for watching this episode of the Daily GSPM West Sand Podcast. Say goodbye, Tom.
00:24:32
Global Sports Podcast Network
Goodbye, guys.
00:24:33
Jacob
ah Please rate this podcast five stars and check out all of our social media that's linked in the description. Also, feel free to check out all the other podcasts, um all the GSPN network podcasts, including fantasy football pod, women's football, wrap up pods in multiple different languages and all the other Premier League teams podcasts. Thanks for listening and we'll see you soon.