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Almost a week has passed since West Ham’s 4-1 defeat to Tottenham but question marks still remain over whether Julen Lopetegui can turn things around in east London.

It has been a frustrating start to life at London Stadium for the Spaniard, having won just three of his opening 10 games in all competitions.

That form leaves the Hammers in 15th place in the Premier League table after defeats to the likes of Aston Villa, Man City, Chelsea and Spurs.

As a result, the fanbase is split on whether Lopetegui is the correct man to take the club forward. Some believe he needs more time to get things working the way he wants, others insist it’s simply not going to work and they’ve seen enough to suggest a change needs to be made sooner rather than later.

The defeat at Tottenham started relatively well, with Mohammed Kudus giving us the lead. While we were under heaps of pressure for much of the first half, we had dealt with Spurs’ dominance relatively well and going in level with the score at 1-1 at the break gave many fans a positive outlook for the second half.

And things did appear to be going to plan. West Ham started the second half well but found themselves 4-1 down after a shocking eight minute spell where three goals were conceded and Tottenham had all but won the game by the hour mark.

In between Spurs’ second and fourth goals, it was clear Julen Lopetegui wanted to make a triple substitution but given the way the game panned out and the quick succession of goals, he was unable to until after the hosts’ fourth goal

And it’s this moment which analysts Jack Elderton and Cal Goodall discussed on this week’s episode of The West Ham Breakdown Podcast, with the general feeling that given West Ham’s positive start to the second half, why was Lopetegui looking to make three changes after conceding a really well worked Spurs goal?

They said: “The second half was a completely different team. Completely different, a whole different approach.

“We went out and we pressed. Two high recoveries in the entire first 45 minutes became three in the first five or six minutes of the second half. We were completely different.

“PPDA fell through the floor. PPDA being the amount of passes the opposition can complete before a defensive intervention. So suddenly we were looking to be really aggressive where we can, to win high turnovers, to possess the ball high up the pitch. We managed to work some good moments but it didn’t quite come off for us and then Spurs scored what was probably their best goal.

“The reaction, initially, to Spurs’ second goal was quite positive. We did really well to resettle again and get back up into their half to possess the ball. We won a corner. A lot of what we were doing was really good at the time.

“Why then, after that goal goes in, do we pan to the touchline and we see Carlos Soler, Edson Alvarez and Crysencio Summerville all preparing to come on straight after the goal goes in? Possibly the strangest triple substitution I’ve seen us do this season.

“And you ask yourself a myriad of questions. The most important one, I think, is what marker was there for these players to say that, ‘if you don’t achieve this, if you don’t do this, I’m going to make changes?’

“Because the only possible one you can really see is ‘don’t concede a goal.’ And that seems an incredibly reductive way to look at what was generally quite a good moment in the match for us.

“From where we’ve left off in the first half, we’ve continued to do the things we were doing well and we’ve improved on the things that weren’t going well. Yes, we’ve conceded an unfortunate goal that’s really well worked by Tottenham. But the plan that was presumably laid out at half time was working.

“So for him [Lopetegui], at the drop of a hat or on the conceding of a goal, to just ignore the whole evidence base of the 10 minutes prior and just go, ‘nah, actually, forget this, it’s not working. I’ve not just seen what I’ve just seen. Let’s get three man off.'”

Confused West Ham players?

Jarrod Bowen and Julen Lopetegui

They go on to question how Lopetegui making bizarre decisions such as this one affects the mentality of the players.

“It’s really confusing,” they continued.

But for the players, what message does that send out? What level of performance do they need to actually put in to be able to stay on the pitch? I’m very confused.

“Do they have any confidence in what they’re being told to do by the manager, if he’s doubting himself seven minutes after the half-time team talk that he’s just given and the team has delivered on? It’s just a real bizarre scenario.

“And that’s not even factoring in the actual players coming on anyway and the issues that he’s trying to address by replacing them. That’s an entirely separate issue in terms of, if you accept that the subs are being made, what is it that he’s actually trying to improve on?

“It’s a real head scratcher.”