West Ham United’s new Head Coach Julen Lopetegui declared himself delighted with the work his squad have put in during their week-long training camp in Austria.
The Hammers ended their first block of pre-season graft with a warm-up match against Hungarian champions Ferencváros in the Kitzbühel sunshine on Monday – and battled back from two goals down to claim a 2-2 draw.
Danny Ings and Nayef Aguerd were on target after the break to cancel out Ferencváros’ lead and ensure Lopetegui’s first game in charge would end without defeat.
The result was not the most important thing for the Head Coach, however, who was more interested in the hard yards given on the training pitches.
“It has been a week of hard work,” he explained. “Today was the first test we have had [on the pitch] – it’s hard, and a good thing for us, because we are playing against a team who are starting their Champions League campaign next week, so they have been working for a month.
“It was a very hard test, and this allows us to put one step more, to increase our rhythm, our work and our ideas, knowing of course that we are playing with a lot of Academy players too.
“It’s a good thing for them to have the experience with us, and now we have to continue working.
“We rest for one day and then we work at our training ground in London before we go to the USA.”
The Irons will now return to Rush Green, before taking on Dagenham & Redbridge at their Chigwell Construction Stadium home on Saturday.
Following that, the Sunshine State Tour to Florida awaits, where Lopetegui’s side will play Wolverhampton Wanderers and Crystal Palace in Florida, and the boss is already looking forward to thise assignments.
“Our objective this week has been to put a lot of physical work into the players. [Because of that] we are not in the best way to face the matches, but it’s time to work and after to know more about our ideas, our tactical plan, and we want to translate that to our players in these days,” he added.
“It is true that until now we have had a lot of players playing international games, so we have to incorporate them later.
“We’ll start working together all of us, and this week it has been good to know more about the qualities of the Academy players too. It is the best journey for this.
“We have worked very hard here, maybe that is why they did not have a lot of energy today, because we have done a lot of work this week.
“We play two matches against Premier League matches in the USA, so we will increase step by step, to make sure we are in the best condition for the start of the season.”
