On January 5, the clock struck Beijing and the flames of the 20th round of the English Premier League were rekindled. West Ham United lost 1-4 to Manchester City in a thrilling match. After the match, the team's manager, Lopetegui, was in the media spotlight to give a deep analysis of the game and a look at the team's future blueprint.
Lopetegui confessed: "In the first half, we showed remarkable energy and created a lot of scoring chances. However, against a tough opponent like Manchester City, once you miss a chance, pain will follow. Their first goal was a stroke of luck and rewrote the script of the game to a certain extent."
Talking about the shortcomings on the defensive end, Lopetegui sounded firm: "The two goals we conceded on counter-attacks, we have to learn from that. Especially the one mistake that shouldn't have happened, we have to learn from it. The individuality of the City players was amazing and their performance on the pitch was top class. Even though we had 17 shots to City's 10, it wasn't the number of shots that made the difference, it was the ability to convert the chances into goals."
Looking to the future of the team, Lopetegui is confident: "I'm not going to think about the players we're missing at the moment. We have to be convinced that the current players have shown their potential. They showed great form in today's game, but it's not enough. We have to maintain the team's strengths in the attacking end, while improving on defensive counter-attacks and taking chances."
