Julen Lopetegui was announced as West Ham's head coach officially on May 23, 2024. Seeing as it has been nearly one month since he has taken the keys to Rush Green off of David Moyes, it would be good to give West Ham fans more perspective on how they could expect the Spaniard to set his team up.
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An overview of Lopetegui's style of play
Typically choosing a 4-3-3, opting for two holding midfielders, Lopetegui likes to build his attacks from the bottom line. Using his midfield pivot vitally in his build up, both fullbacks will be heavily involved in the attacking movement and often overlap, looking to be found by one of his midfielders.
A key part of Lopetegui's system is always having an option and creating an overload. With a slow and patient method, consistently opening corridors in central positions. His midfield 3 tend to possess different skills that compliment each other well.
For instance you could see Edson Alvarez act as his 'destroyer', often dropping between both centre backs in possession, with a number 8 coming short and looking to move the ball to either the full back on the overlap or the 'attacking' player of the midfield three, who should be found in one of those spaces created from inviting press.
Throughout his career, Lopetegui's system has adapted to the striker he has had available. At Porto, Yacine Brahimi played with his back to goal, often dropping deep to move the draw out opposing defences and help find other attacking outlets in lucrative positions, which is very similar to the job Michail Antonio done under Moyes.
Youssef En-Nesyri had a more cut-throat role at Sevilla, typically not having the role of dropping deeper and instead finding himself running across opposing defences.
Out of possession, during his time as Sevilla head coach, a 4-2-3-1 was adopted to protect both central defenders behind them. With his use of fullbacks throughout attacking movements, it becomes vital that there is a pivot behind them when they have gone forward to ensure that his team are not susceptible to a counter attack.
His attacking midfielder will join the high press with the three forwards.
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Who fits the bill?
In Lopetegui's tenure at Wolves, it is known that he was actively interested in both Antonio and Aaron Cresswell, however time has passed since then, Emerson Palmieri is off the back of a highly successful individual season, raising shouts for 'Hammer Of The Year' by many and with Antonio's age and injury concerns, it makes it nearly impossible for him to be able to play week in week out at this level.
Mohammed Kudus: In previous Lopetegui teams, such as Sevilla, the use of Papu Gomez could be a role that Kudus slots into with ease. He has every attribute suitable to being the attacking midfielder in the already mentioned 4-3-3. Close control and amazing ability on the half-turn, it is possible that Lopetegui favours him in that position.
Edson Alvarez: With the 'relentless' movement from both fullbacks, it is vital to have a strong holding midfielder to protect the two centre backs out of possession. Alvarez had a steady first season as a West Ham player, and his destroyer-like abilities could see him be utilised here.
Jarrod Bowen: It goes without saying that Bowen would have been useful to any manager that walked through the door following Moyes' departure but if Lopetegui decides to adopt a false-nine in this system, Bowen may flourish due to the space being created for him to put his first class finishing abilities on display.
Nayef Aguerd: As the first three names were 'obvious choices', here is a more controversial pick. Nayef Aguerd's two seasons at West Ham have been a mixed bag. However, his shining light is his ability on the ball and in Lopetegui's style of building out from the back, there is potential that he cements his place back in the starting eleven under the new head coach.
Generally speaking, there are not many players throughout the squad that Lopetegui has walked into who will be deemed 'not good enough' and with a summer transfer window ahead, he has a chance to build a team which will fit into his ideology.
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Is Lopetegui the right man?
Throughout the weeks leading up to his appointment, and even in the weeks following his appointment there has been a variety of different views around him being 'the best fit'. It is impossible to judge right now, seeing as there has not been a minute of football in the Lopetegui era, and it is easy to pre-emptively suggest that the club have made the wrong choice.
Moyes took the club from consistently fighting the drop and steadied the ship, winning the UEFA Europa Conference League during it, the next step is now avoiding seasons where you find yourself slipping down into 11th or lower and instead look to become a team who are always in and around 6th-8th spot.
Lopetegui has amassed enough experience throughout his career to become the man that does that for the Hammers.
Will he be the long term fix? It is likely that he will not be, after all in his senior management career the longest he has been in a job was the three year stint he had at Sevilla, but in terms of proactiveness and always moving, the West Ham board seem to have made an appointment that matches Lopetegui's ambitions.
