Things do seem to be slowly improving with Julen Lopetegui’s West Ham.
The players have looked a lot more sure of themselves tactically over the last few games and while we’re still conceding way too many shots and aren’t scoring enough goals down the other end, there have been some signs that the players are on the right track.
There’s still a great deal of work to be done before we can be completely sure that Lopetegui can be a success in east London, but we have a couple of fixtures over the festive period that can give us a huge boost towards competing in and around the top half of the table again.
We’re only six points off 7th-placed Aston Villa, which suggests a season that everyone thought was already over can still technically be saved.
We host Brighton on Saturday, who are without a win in four games and were comfortably beaten by Crystal Palace at home last time out.
The Seagulls are out of form, while we’re showing some signs of entering into some kind of positive form, so this is a fixture that has the potential to be a good chance of picking up more points for Lopetegui’s men.
The starting XI for Monday night’s 1-1 draw with Brentford had many fans scratching their heads. It wasn’t a surprise to see Aaron Wan-Bissaka at left-back in place of the suspended Emerson, with Vladimir Coufal playing on the right of the defence. But it was a surprise to see Crysencio Summerville drop to the bench in favour of Lucas Paqueta.
But weirdly, it worked. We were the better team in the second half and, while Bournemouth peppered our goal with a lot of attacks in the second, we came away deserving of a point at the very least.
So what does Lopetegui do against Brighton?
Emerson is available again and will likely slot back into the left-back slot, with Wan-Bissaka moving back to the right. That’s probably the most obvious tweak to the starting XI for this weekend.
At the centre of defence, I think we’ll remain unchanged. Max Kilman has been solid and despite needlessly giving away the free-kick that led to Bournemouth’s late equaliser, Konstantinos Mavropanos has mostly impressed in his last few performances.
Elsewhere, it’s Carlos Soler’s turn to miss out through suspension after he picked up his fifth caution of the season against Bournemouth. I think that forces Lopetegui into moving Paqueta back into the No.10 position, although I really want to see Mohammed Kudus be given a run-out in that role at some point.
Elsewhere, Niclas Fullkrug caused Bournemouth some problems when he came on in the second half earlier this week and really should’ve scored with a header in the build-up to our penalty being awarded. He’s back to full fitness now and must be banging on the door for his first Premier League start of the season. I think he’ll get it this weekend, with Jarrod Bowen moving back to where he’s most comfortable and most effective.
Despite a lack of form of late, Kudus’ positive performance against Bournemouth should see him keep his place on the left, although I wouldn’t be surprised if Summerville started this one in his place.
So, here’s the starting XI I believe Lopetegui might go with at London Stadium on Saturday afternoon…
What do you think?
