A despondent Julen Lopetegui has urged Hammers fans to be patient and to wait until May to make any judgement on his performance as West Ham boss.
The beleaguered Spaniard has come under early fire after replacing David Moyes in the summer, having having secured victory in only one game from his opening seven in all competitions.
The Hammers received consecutive thrashings at the hands of Chelsea and Liverpool, with eight goals conceded, which has led to the decibels of discontent rising appreciably amongst disgruntled supporters, many of whom are calling for the return of Moyes so soon after his departure.
A substantial number of those fans, however, seem to be oblivious of the glaring fact that the four games Lopetegui has lost so far have all come against teams currently sitting in the top five of the Premier League table. Most other teams that lose to the top flight this season won’t be clamoring for their manager to be sacked – something some West Ham fans obviously aren’t interested in.
Lopetegui has urged West Ham fans – ahead of the Hammers’ trip to Brentford on Saturday afternoon – to show more patience with regards to the job he’s trying to do and that they need to wait until the end of the season to judge the job he’s doing.
Speaking to BBC Sport, he said: “The coach’s job is always like this.
“We have experience about this and we are thinking how to improve the team, to be able to play better and develop our skills to win matches.
“This is our work and this is the high pressure I can feel every day as a coach. I think the Premier League has 38 matches and we’ll talk in May.”
Lopetegui’s response to fans is certainly not an unfair one considering the amount of work he has had to put into reshaping the team this season. Not only has Lopetegui had to navigate a difficult run of fixtures so early in his east London tenure, but he has also had to integrate nine new players in to the squad and completely overhaul the playing style – from a conservative, defensive-minded approach to a pressing, possession-based and forward-thinking mentality.
Getting all of that to work, and work well, requires time which would certainly be a lot longer than seven games.
But the former Sevilla, Real Madrid and Spain boss did acknowledge the importance of beating Brentford this weekend as pressure continues to grow.
“It’s always important to get a win,” he added.
“Above all when you lost the last two matches as we did.
“For us, that’s why it’s always important and the Brentford match is going to be like this – important, three points against a very good team.
“We know we were going to have a lot of work and a lot of problems. Always one win increases your confidence, increases a lot of good things for you and we work for that.”