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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0table. Most other teams that lose to the top flight this season won\u2019t be clamoring for their manager to be sacked \u2013 something some West Ham fans obviously aren\u2019t interested in.<\/p>\n
Lopetegui has urged West Ham fans \u2013 ahead of the Hammers\u2019 trip to Brentford\u00a0on Saturday afternoon \u2013 to show more patience with regards to the job he\u2019s trying to do and that they need to wait until the end of the season to judge the job he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n
Speaking to BBC Sport, he said: \u201cThe coach\u2019s job is always like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis 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\u2019ll talk in May.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lopetegui\u2019s 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 \u2013 from a conservative, defensive-minded approach to a pressing, possession-based and forward-thinking mentality.<\/p>\n
Getting all of that to work, and work well, requires time which would certainly be a lot longer than seven games.<\/p>\n
But the former Sevilla, Real Madrid and Spain boss did acknowledge the importance of beating Brentford this weekend as pressure continues to grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always important to get a win,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbove all when you lost the last two matches as we did.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, that\u2019s why it\u2019s always important and the Brentford match is going to be like this \u2013 important, three points against a very good team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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