Worst managerial record since 2010 – Lopetegui under huge pressure ahead of Newcastle test

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Liverpool v West Ham 

©Imago/Content stadium

West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui has responded to growing pressure over his position at the London club by stating that he isn’t interested in speculation and remains focused on the task at hand. The Hammers have won just two of their last 10 games in all competitions and make the trip to Newcastle on Monday with hopes of claiming their first away win in the Premier League since a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace in August. As such, the Spanish manager has been the subject of numerous reports hinting at his imminent sacking at the club. 

“I am not listening to or reading about what is said. I am really focused,” Lopetegui said in a press conference this week. “My focus is to work in the team and to be able to understand what things can help us be a better team. The rest, this is not under our control – what is, is being able to work better with a high demand, knowing that our players are going to get better for sure and also knowing that the [end of the] season arrives in May, not November, so let’s see what is going to happen in two or three months.”

West Ham’s poor start under Lopetegui

After a somewhat tepid spell at Wolves in the 2022/23 season, Lopetegui replaced David Moyes as West Ham manager in May 2024 and oversaw the club spending no less than €144.4 million on new players as the Spaniard looked to revitalise a team that had slumped to ninth under his Scottish predecessor. But that hasn’t exactly gone according to plan so far. The Hammers picked up two wins in their first three games of the season, but then fell into a poor run of form that saw them go five matches without a single victory, pripr to a 4-1 win over Luton last month. But since then West Ham have only managed a somewhat unexpected win over Manchester United in their following four games and alon the way slumped ot fourteenth in the league table. And fans feeling aggrieved at Lopetegui’s inability to even match Moyes’ record at the club last season, never mind improving on it. 

Drop off from Moyes to Lopetegui?

As we can see in the table above, Lopetegui’s current record of just 1.15 points per game is a considerable drop off from the 1.53 points per game Moyes averaged during his four-and-a-half-year spell at the club. It’s also worse than Manuel Pellegrini’s average of 1.30 points per game and Slaven Bilic’s 1.43 points per game average. In fact, when we take a look at the records of every previous West Ham manager we can find that Lopetegui’s current return is the worst of any West Ham manager since Gianfranco Zola’s two-year spell in the dug-out, which ended in May 2010. And while the Spaniard could point to a tricky start to his first season at West Ham, some may note that it was these big matches that Moyes tended to thrive in as West Ham manager. 

Indeed, over the course of the previous Premier League campaign, Moyes managed to avoid defeat in no less than half of the games West Ham played against the eventual top six in the English top-flight. Although Man City took all six points off Moyes’ West Ham, they beat Arsenal 2-0, drew 2-2 with Liverpool, drew 1-1 with Aston Villa and managed to beat Tottenham 2-1 and draw 1-1 with them in the league campaign, alongside a 3-1 win over Chelsea in front of their own fans to boot. And when we couple that with a 3-1 win over Arsenal in last season’s League Cup fourth round, it certainly suggests that West Ham were far more resolute in the big games last season than they have shown thus far under their new manager. Perhaps Monday night’s clash with Newcastle will be the perfect opportunity for Lopetegui to turn that unfortunate record on its head and prove that he can be just as tenacious as his predecessor when the odds are stacked against his team. But if not, West Ham may be on the hunt for a new manager before too long.