It is clear that Julen Lopetegui is not one for making excuses when his West Ham United team loses.
The new Head Coach could easily have cited the fact he has had only a few weeks – days in some instances – to work with his newly-inherited squad, but did not do that following Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League defeat by Aston Villa.
Instead, he pointed to the fact that his team did not match Unai Emery’s side in ‘the little details’ at London Stadium, meaning what could have been a victory or draw ultimately ended with a loss Lopetegui accurately described as a ‘pity’ for West Ham’s players and supporters and, ultimately, for the Spaniard himself.
West Ham started slowly and went behind inside four minutes when Amadou Onana lost his marker to head in Youri Tielemans’ corner at the near post. Villa then threatened to extend their lead, especially when Leon Bailey hit the base of the post.
However, when Tomáš Souček won a penalty from Matty Cash, Lucas Paquetá converted confidently and the flow of the match changed immediately. However, Souček was denied by a block and Michail Antonio headed over at 1-1, and Villa took advantage to go back in front through Jhon Durán’s powerful finish eleven minutes from the end.
Even then, Danny Ings saw a header saved and Souček somehow cleared the bar after Ezri Konsa had blocked his initial effort, and West Ham were left to wonder what might have been, had their finishing been more clinical.
The Premier League is the most demanding competition around the world, so the little details are key.
Today I think that we gave a big effort. We did and that is why we are very unhappy, above all, for our fans, and for the players too, because they made a big effort. It was a pity.
It’s true that we lost against one of the best teams in the Premier League in the last season, and maybe in the current season too, but I think that despite this, we equalised a very hard match in a lot of moments. In other moments, I think that we overcame them too, but it's about the goals.
We suffered very early, when we conceded from a set piece, and we have to improve about this for sure, all these things, because these little details are key. They allow you to take advantage of a lot of good work, and after we equalise the match, I think that we finished the first half better than them, in my opinion, and the start of the second half too. But if you don't score, of course, the match changes.
They have a very good team, and in the end, despite that they scored the second goal, we had two very two clear chances to score in the end of the match, but we don't score. We suffered two goals and we scored only one, so we lost. We are very disappointed with this, and we have to keep the good things that we showed and we did, and we have to improve the bad things to be more competitive.
We are here, and we have to think that we can’t stay talking about this [being early in our tenure], despite it being our first match.
You are right that Unai has been there three years, Villa is a big team and is one in the Champions League. They spend a lot of money in the summer too and they improved this team, but in the same way I think that we to review the match, because in a lot of ways we equalised the match. We had our chances to overcome them, but OK, we have to improve and we have to think about the next step, the next challenge.
If you ask me how I am feeling right now, I am very sad and unhappy because we lost, and we can't feel another way.
But, of course, that's why I think it was a pity for our fans because they, in my opinion, in the start of the match, when we suffered the goal, they kept us into the match because they supported a lot and they gave us a lot of energy. That's why it's a pity that we can't offer them one victory.
