Former Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor has ripped into Julen Lopetegui’s tactics after West Ham United’s 3-0 defeat against Chelsea at the London Stadium.
The Hammers were nothing short of embarrassing on Saturday. While Chelsea were at the top of their game, West Ham made it far too easy for the Blues to play through them.
Nicolas Jackson bagged a brace inside the opening 20 minutes of the game and set up Cole Palmer for the third early in the second half.
West Ham offered little by way of attacking threat. They didn’t do enough to threaten Robert Sanchez’s goal and were well beaten.
The final score flattered West Ham, considering Chelsea were somewhat wasteful in front of goal, and Agbonlahor was unimpressed with how Lopetegui set up his team.
“Honestly, the tactics were incredible,” Agbonlahor said on talkSPORT.
“You’ve got two centre-backs, you put a midfielder [Edson] Alvarez in between them to man-mark Jackson, and he can’t run.
“The first goal, I’m watching it, and I’m like, when’s the centre-half going to come over and cover Alvarez?
“He couldn’t get back, and that was the story of the whole game – strange tactics. If you’re going to try and man-mark a striker with pace, you have a quick player doing it, not someone that can’t run.”
West Ham have only picked up four points from their opening five games of the season, and Lopetegui is under increasing pressure to turn things around.
They were one of the most active teams in the transfer market, sparing no expense to rebuild the ageing squad David Moyes left behind, but Lopetegui is struggling to get a tune out of his squad.
The Hammers face Liverpool in the third round of the League Cup in midweek before travelling across London for another Premier League derby against Brentford on Saturday.
