Following a difficult start to the season for West Ham, many fans and pundits alike are beginning to question what is going wrong for the Hammers.
Form on the decline, £100m+ spent, yet Julen Lopetegui's side rest in 15th heading into November. A 4-1 thrashing to the hands of London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, only souring the mood further both on and off the pitch.
After such a promising summer window, what is going wrong in East London?
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Tactical Woes
Under the guidance of Lopetegui, West Ham attempt to play a similar style of play to the likes of Pep Guardiola and Xabi Alonso - particularly the idea of fluid positional play.
Lopetegui employs a 4-3-3 formation, as he has done throughout his managerial career, though the fluidity comes during both attacking and defensive situations.
In an attacking situation, the right back (whether it be Aaron Wan-Bissaka or Vladimir Coufal) tends to push into midfield, with one of Edson Alvarez or Guido Rodriguez dropping into the centre of defence, and thus giving West Ham their extra defensive stability.
Defensively this remains a similar case, with two midfielders aiming to solidify down the middle, the right back pushing back into position and either Alvarez or Rodriguez keeping their defensive position.
However, this style of play has seen West Ham caught out on the counter a number of times already this season, with most goals coming down the Hammers' weaker right-hand side - the best example of this would be when West Ham played Chelsea, losing 3-0.
Nicolas Jackson found himself behind the West Ham defence a number of times throughout the match, scoring twice as a result.
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Playing in a weak position
Alongside the struggles the Hammers are enduring tactically, it seems that players are being played in weaker positions and roles than they had played under David Moyes - particularly Mohammed Kudus.
With Kudus and Paqueta primarily being used outside of their typical roles and positions, they have noticeably had a decrease in form that is contributing to West Ham's failure to score, though perhaps through no fault of their own.
Under David Moyes, Kudus played a more central role, operating as a classic "number 10" - driving the ball up the field and either feeding it to the wingers (Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta) or going solo whilst defenders are drawn away from the striker.
Under Lopetegui however, Kudus seems to be forced onto the left side of the pitch, finding himself under the cosh in many situations. Kudus' time on the left wing has even found himself substituted at half-time against Brentford, leading reports to leak that the Ghanaian and Lopetegui 'had to be separated' in the dressing room.
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"Keep calm and fight as a team"
West Ham travelled to North London to play rivals, Spurs, last week - a game in which the Hammers went 1-0 up through Kudus.
However, the Ghanaian hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons as he was sent off due to violent conduct against Tottenham defender, Micky Van de Ven, causing havoc on the pitch. Both clubs and Kudus himself have consequently received fines for failing to control themselves.
Despite this, Lopetegui, speaking to BBC, has called for his team to "keep calm and fight as a team", believing that his team can learn and grow from the incident.
The Hammers will be without Kudus for three matches, potentially opening up a spot in the team for the promising Crysencio Summerville.
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Difficult first fixtures
The fixture list was certainly not kind to Lopetegui and West Ham, with four of the Hammers' first eight matches coming against teams that finished within the top 6 last season - Aston Villa (4th), Manchester City (1st), Chelsea (6th), and Spurs (5th), perhaps arguing that the call to sack the Spaniard may be too harsh and too early at this stage of the season.
Important fixtures for Lopetegui include the upcoming home match against Everton, a trip to Leicester, and games against Wolves, Bournemouth, Brighton and Southampton all to follow.
Although this piece is delving into "what is going wrong" for the Hammers, time is on Julen Lopetegui's side. Whilst fans and pundits may speculate a replacement for the Spaniard, all it takes is one good run of form for the tides to turn.
With only the league to focus on until January, Lopetegui certainly has time to turn his fortunes around and get some much-needed points on the board for West Ham.
