Resilience and commitment have become Julen Lopetegui’s favourite bywords for West Ham United and for 45 minutes against Manchester United, his side showed that in abundance.
After an uninspiring first half that saw United squander five goalscoring opportunities, Lopetegui reemerged from the tunnel with Jean-Clair Todibo, Tomas Soucek and Crysencio Summerville summoned to replace Konstantinos Mavropanos, Lucas Paqueta and Carlos Soler.
The triple substitution had the desired effect and was a key factor behind Sunday’s 2-1 win.
West Ham markedly improved offensively and played with energy, confidence and flair. Todibo and defensive partner Maximilian Kilman made key contributions at the back, Soucek brought more stability to the midfield, and Summerville, who scored the game’s opener in the 74th minute, tormented United full-back Diogo Dalot.
West Ham were without the suspended Mohammed Kudus and had lacked an attacking presence down the left flank until Summerville’s introduction. Before his introduction, Summerville had promised Kudus that he would score, so the 22-year-old ran to the bench and embraced the Ghana international after his opener.
The match was undoubtedly a tale of two halves and against better opposition, West Ham would likely have been punished. But Lopetegui’s side at least improved on last weekend’s 4-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur to move above United, to 13th, in the league table.
Come full time, there were smiles as Tim Steidten, the technical director, and Mark Noble, the sporting director, emerged from the home dressing room.
Lopetegui speaks with Erik ten Hag before the match (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
The 4-1 home win over Ipswich Town at the beginning of this month was supposed to be the turning point after a poor start to the season, but a chastening defeat to Spurs followed. Ahead of upcoming games against Nottingham Forest and Everton, Kilman hopes Sunday’s win will lead to consistency.
“West Ham is a massive club and we need to be performing better,” he told The Athletic. “We’ve not started the best, but we have so many games to push on. We can’t let it (recent performances) affect us because we have a lot of games coming on.
“We have a massive squad with a lot of new players, a new manager — and things take time (to gel). Sometimes it takes longer than other occasions, but we’re in a position where we know we can improve. Hopefully, today is a stepping stone. It’s been a tough start but we showed a lot of resilience and character.
“You could see in the second-half performance with the way we pushed. The boys that came on did a great job. That’s what we need from the whole squad to push us on. The manager said we had to improve on our performance from the first half. We pressed really high, got the ball in good areas and the fans pushed us on.”
Lopetegui made four changes to his XI after the loss at Tottenham — Lukasz Fabianski, Mavropanos, Soler and Edson Alvarez replaced Alphonse Areola, Todibo, Soucek and Kudus respectively — but West Ham were still vulnerable in defence.
They were often stretched by United’s attacking duo of Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund. Whenever full-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka vacated his defensive positions, Garnacho looked to exploit space down the left, and when the winger’s strike cannoned off the crossbar after just two minutes, it seemed as if West Ham were going to make another poor start to a game.
The hosts looked unsettled and the game plan was not working.
An unmarked Bruno Fernandes missed a header from close range as he darted in between Mavropanos and Wan-Bissaka. Fabianski, who made his first league start since the 5-2 defeat at Crystal Palace in April, justified his position when he saved Casemiro’s header on the stroke of half-time. West Ham were too exposed, which culminated in a smattering of fans booing at the interval.
That led to Lopetegui’s triple change — his sixth, seventh and eighth at half-time in the Premier League this season, the highest in the league.
Half-time changes this season
Of the changes, Summerville’s was the most impactful, bringing much-needed efficiency to West Ham’s attack. His sole league start was in the 3-0 loss to Chelsea in September, but he has impressed in cameo league appearances — one of the loudest cheers came when the stadium announcer introduced the winger — and he has showcased why he merits a start against Nottingham Forest next Saturday.
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag said the best team did not deserve to lose; the embattled boss shook his head in frustration as he walked towards Lopetegui at full time.
“I respect his opinion, but there were two different halves,” said Lopetegui in response to Ten Hag’s comment. “The first half they were better, but the second half we changed, were better and deserved to win. They had chances and that’s why we made changes. But we were better than them in the second half.
“We thought for this second half, with Manchester playing on Thursday, that we would have more energy with Summerville playing. Fortunately, it worked very well. The players played with commitment and energy. Our heads didn’t drop when we conceded.”
Many things would have frustrated both managers. For Lopetegui, it was West Ham’s inability to hold onto a lead. They have conceded shortly after scoring in consecutive games and Casemiro’s 81st-minute header gave the away side hope when they capitalised on West Ham being reduced to 10 men as Alvarez waited to be reintroduced by the referee.
But, sometimes, you need a bit of luck and that came when West Ham were awarded a controversial penalty. VAR deemed there was sufficient contact following Matthijs de Ligt’s foul on Danny Ings. Jarrod Bowen converted the penalty in front of England’s interim head coach Lee Carsley.
#WHUMUN – 87’ VAR OVERTURN
The referee did not award a penalty to West Ham for a challenge by de Ligt on Ings. The VAR deemed there was sufficient contact on Ings’ lower leg and recommended an on-field review. The referee overturned his original decision and awarded a penalty.
— Premier League Match Centre (@PLMatchCentre) October 27, 2024
Lopetegui is usually the first person to head down the tunnel when a match is over, but this time he opted to savour the moment.
Guido Rodriguez was the first player he embraced before he then celebrated with members of his backroom staff. It was an important victory, an improved second-half performance, but the team will need to show this is just the start of something and not a fluke.
(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
