Julen Lopetegui has a plan in mind to get West Ham United back firing in the Premier League again next season.
West Ham owner David Sullivan and director of football Tim Steidten agreed to appoint Julen Lopetegui as David Moyes’s replacement this month.
Lopetegui is believed to have made his first signing as Hammers boss already, with Bruno on his way to the London Stadium from Flamengo.
It has been claimed the Portuguese winger Jota Silva could be Hammers bound as well.
Everything seems to be falling into place as far as the summer transfer window goes, but what is the plan in general?
Well, it seems like Lopetegui has a very specific plan in place in order to achieve the targets set for him by Sullivan and Steidten…
Julen Lopetegui’s two-point plan to hit Premier League target
The Spaniard faces a really difficult task ahead of him, if he is to get the Hammers back into Europe.
David Moyes worked miracles at the London Stadium in all fairness to him, but the squad he left behind is not in good shape.
There are too many players over the age of 28 at the club, and we are worryingly weak in certain departments, including left wing, centre-forward and the full-back positions.
West Ham were appalling during the second half of the season just gone, having won just five games in all competitions since the start of January.
So how can Lopetegui improve us as a team. And what is expected of him from the club owners and the director of football?
According to Marca, Sullivan and Steidten believe that Lopetegui can get the Hammers back inside the top six in the Premier League table.
And the Spaniard aims to do that by addressing two key areas.
His first priority is to tighten up West Ham’s leaky back-line. We conceded 74 Premier League goals last season – the fourth worst tally in the division.
The likes of Kurt Zouma and Nayef Aguerd were awful this season just gone, especially during the final five months of the campaign.
As mentioned earlier, Bruno is all set to join the Hammers, but purely signing new players won’t be enough.
Lopetegui needs to fix the broken defensive system at West Ham with some astute coaching – something that I’m convinced he’s capable of doing.
I’m sure he will get his entire team pressing higher up the pitch as well, rather than the passive way they were instructed to play under Moyes.
The second priority on Lopetegui’s agenda is signing a top-class number nine – someone who can come in and replace Michail Antonio immediately.
We have been strongly linked with a move to sign Sevilla hitman Youssef En-Nesyri, with a £17 million deal being mooted in the Spanish media.
That would certainly make sense, considering the fact that he has worked under Lopetegui before.
If Lopetegui manages to get us well-drilled defensively, and adds a top-class centre-forward to his ranks, it will certainly be a very good start to the transfer window.
However, that will be nowhere near enough if we are to compete for the top six.
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