Julen Lopetegui has been poor at West Ham but I believe 'foolish' £32m star must take some blame

It's all eyes on West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui this weekend as he looks to save his job in the Premier League encounter against Everton at the London Stadium.

A truly underwhelming start to life with the Hammers for the Spaniard has had club sources this week suggesting that a failure to pick up three points against the 16th-placed Toffees could cost the coach his job after just 11 matches in charge of the side. In football, the buck always stops with the manager but it would be very harsh to give Lopetegui his marching orders so soon.

Former West Ham boss David Moyes this week spoke out in defence of his successor and rightfully pointed the finger at West Ham first team stars. The Scotsman called on players to 'step up and show what they're about', and he's not wrong to do so.

Lopetegui came in tasked with ushering a new era of football and splurged a huge £132 million this summer to do that. Many of those signings have so far been disappointments but the early signs of a new West Ham style of play are there.

Making such changes was always going to take time and the West Ham boss has not been helped by his players. Many, as Moyes points out, have lacked character but it's far to stay that one star in particular has been nothing short of foolish this term.

Lopetegui laments ‘bad moment’ in red card

Edson Alvarez, who arrived from Ajax for £32 million in 2023, received his second red card of the season against Nottingham Forest last weekend. Given his marching orders on the stroke of half time, it all but ended the Hammers' chances of coming back from a 1-0 deficit.

The London side had been far from impressive in the game that far but still stood a chance of picking up points at the City Ground - Lucas Paqueta was just inches away from an equaliser moments before the red card. That dismissal left Lopetegui frustrated after the match and, even as he tried to hide his emotion, the anger was clear to hear.

He said: “We can and we have to do much better. You can prepare the team but the players have to take the right decisions and we have to play with eleven men. It's one of the situations we can avoid because there was no danger of this. We had a lot of players in our box.

“It is a big advantage for the opponent above all because there is a lot of time in front of you. You are losing the match so it was a bad moment for us and a very good moment for them because they wanted to damage us on the counter-attack."

An embarrassed Alvarez went straight down the tunnel after his sending off and he was right to be red-faced - there was no need for either yellow card. The first came for a rug on Murillo, who was on the verge of being dispossessed by Guido Rodriguez. The second was a result of taking out Anthony Elanga on the break in a hot-headed moment that saw him get nowhere near the ball.

The red card changed the game and it's not the first time this season that Alvarez has been detrimental to chances of a West Ham result by reckless play. In the Carabao Cup defeat to Liverpool earlier this year, the Mexican also picked up a red card.

Alvarez made ‘stupid decision’ against Liverpool

Lopetegui's side were 3-1 down at the time but had been enjoying a strong period of play following the introduction of Michail Antonio at Anfield. The Hammers had a couple of penalty shouts and should have pulled one back if Max Kilman could have sorted his clumsy feet out.

Alvarez' second yellow came for needlessly clattering into Mohammed Salah, who had already played the ball when contact was made. Speaking on Sky Sports, Jamie Carragher rightly slammed the midfielder for doing that.

He said: “West Ham are so close to getting a goal – and they probably deserve a goal in the second half. It’s a really stupid decision when you’re on a yellow card. There are two or three players around Mo Salah, it’s not on his own. It certainly wasn’t last-ditch. It takes the game away from West Ham now with them being down to 10 men.”

It's not given that West Ham would have pulled off a comeback against Nottingham Forest or Liverpool with 11 men on the field but what is for sure is that it became much, much harder after those silly decisions from Alvarez. The player will watch on from the sidelines this weekend as he serves his latest suspension but, should Lopetegui be given his marching orders, it would be fair to assign some of that guilt to the midfielder.