If there’s one fixture West Ham fans want to avoid in the cups at all costs it’s Liverpool away. Everyone knows how horrid the Hammers’ record is at Anfield, with just 1 win there in However, with a new manager there’s the perfect opportunity to break this curse, although Lopetegui admits things drastically need to improve if they are to beat the Reds. “After the game on Saturday, I said the result was my responsibility. There were mistakes, and in football there are always mistakes – even when you win, and when you lose you can still do good things,” he boldly stated.
“We made a change at half-time [with Guido Rodríguez coming off], but when you do that it’s not about a player’s form, but rather to do with my first decision. It’s not something I like to do, but we have to be honest and accept when we can do things better. Guido is experienced, and he understood the situation.”
“Always, we are learning from mistakes. But the more important thing is that we are working to do better. We have big commitment from the players, and we are all doing everything we can to get better results, starting with Liverpool tomorrow.”60.”60 years.
A historic win at Anfield is exactly what the Spaniard needs to restore the faith, but it will be far from easy. “Tomorrow is a really important match for us, and we’re going to need all of our strengths to come away from Anfield with the result we want. It’s not going to be an easy task, but we have to have the mindset that it’s possible. We will go there with big ambition and enthusiasm, for sure.”
“Liverpool is a huge club all around the world. They have a good new coach, who has shown so far that he is trying to continue the good work from previous years while also putting his own stamp on things, because every coach is different.”
West Ham made 9 first-team signings over the Summer, but not all of them have had a proper opportunity to prove their worth. The gaffer has hinted that they may get this as he looks to rotate the squad.
“We don’t have any new injuries,” he confirmed. “I think that today [Tuesday] we are going to see that Füllkrug is better too, so maybe we are going to have all the squad ready. Yesterday [Monday] Füllkrug trained, and today he’s going to train again and we will see his level.”
“Łukasz is going to play, for sure. He is one player that makes us feel very safe with him, and he works very hard, always, and is always ready, so tomorrow he’s going to play.”
“It’s a good chance for all the squad to get minutes, but the more important thing is to face a very total team, the defending champions, at their home ground.”
“We are going to try to be balanced, to balance the team, and to be able to put out a team that can compete tomorrow. Our focus is on Anfield. All of them, they are going to have the possibility to play but I repeat, we have to balance the team, because we have to try to take advantage of all of our squad, while always thinking that the team that we are going to put out is ready to compete at Anfield.”
“It is a very tall task but, in the same way, one task and one challenge, that we go into with big expectation and ambition.”
A tall task is an understatement, but if they can pull it off Lopetegui will have fans back on side straight away. For his sake, and the club’s, let’s hope he can produce a miracle in Merseyside.
Leave a Reply