Julen Lopetegui admitted his team had lost their focus and allowed Saturday’s 4-1 defeat by Tottenham Hotspur to get away from them in double-quick time.
West Ham United took the lead in north London through Mohammed Kudus’ first-time shot on 18 minutes, before being pegged back by Dejan Kulusevski’s equaliser nine minutes before half-time.
While they went in level, the warning signs were there for Lopetegui’s side, who conceded 13 corners and a succession of balls into their own six-yard box and penalty area in the opening 45 minutes.
The Irons momentarily threatened at the start of the second period, before seemingly losing their concentration and organisation and conceding three goals inside eight minutes up to the hour mark to Yves Bissouma, a Alphonse Areola's own-goal and Son Heung-Min.
What looked for a short time in the first half like it could result in another famous away win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium instead turned into a horror show that Lopetegui and his players, staff and West Ham supporters will want to forget in a hurry.
However, the Head Coach also knows they must learn from the mistakes made in north London if they are to produce a more positive performance and result when they host Manchester United next Sunday afternoon at London Stadium.
We're disappointed with the result.
We are very disappointed to lose the match, the three points, and for our fans too. I think it was a match where we started well and did good things. We were able to score and to have other clear chances, so it was a pity that we suffered their goal before half time, but this can happen.
But in the second half, after the second goal, we can do much better than we did to avoid these moments for sure because all our players knew what their players were going to do. We didn’t defend well. After the second goal, we had a lot of time to be competitive and to draw or even win the match, and I think the worst thing today was the eight minutes when we were not competitive.
It is something we want to improve if we want to compete in the Premier League with these teams. I think to keep the mentality in these bad moments is very important to become a better and stronger team.
Everything happened very fast.
We wanted to make the substitutions at 2-1, but everything happened very fast. It’s true that even before it went 2-1 that we were thinking about changing the players, but things in football can happen very fast, and it was a bad moment for us.
Despite not getting the substitutes on, I think we can do better with the players on the pitch. It’s about keeping the focus and the right mentality.
You've got to control frustration in these moments.
I think that Mo [Mohammed Kudus] had a good match in the first half above all. It was a pity that he didn’t stay on the pitch until the end because, despite that one moment happening, we have to avoid these kinds of moments.
It is understandable to be hurt in this moment, but the players have to control this situation because the red card is not a good thing for him, for us, or for the Club.
We're very sorry to the fans, but we will look to put it right.
I think when you’ve lost, you have to be disappointed because, for sure, we are very sorry to our fans, but on Monday we have to change our mentality and be ready to work hard ahead of the next challenge. I think that we have a lot of work to do in front of us.
