Why is Lopetegui on the ropes after just 11 EPL games since succeeding Moyes?

Julen Lopetegui's appointment at West Ham was intended to herald the arrival of an attacking, bold style of football, following the platform that had been built over the past five years.

Lopetegui, a former Spain manager born in the 21st century cradle of aesthetic football, was promised the kind of resources to bring those Iberian philosophies to east London, beyond the limited budget – and pragmatic style of play – he had in his last should have taken years. job at Wolves.

With a war chest of £130m that former manager David Moyes might have looked at with envy, the club put its money where its mouth was last summer. Moyes had built West Ham into a team that could win again; a first European trophy in six decades, two more continental quarter-finals, three top-10 finishes out of four.

But five months on, few of those have produced much to justify their high combined price tags and the third-largest net spend in the Premier League this season.

Nobody expected perfect, free football on the table after eleven games, but it's not too much to expect any signs of progress.

But after those years of relative – if limited – stability under Moyes, the chaotic underbelly of a club that has had three managers in the four years leading up to his second spell has returned. And it could leave Lopetegui less unemployed after less than half a season.

The hand dealt to the manager is not as rosy as the financial support alone would suggest, but the results and performance speak for themselves. West Ham plays within itself and could not even find a way past Everton before the international break – who conceded seventeen times in the first ten games – in a frustrating 0-0.

Now it is being reported that he has two games to save his job. West Ham are still a few good results away from the top half, but the icy step towards that long-awaited style could ultimately spell their undoing.

In Lopetegui's first game in the dugout against Aston Villa it was still Tomas Soucek, a talented player but more physical than technical, who made runs into the penalty area to latch on to long balls. It raised a few questions, but it was early stages.

Now that eleven games have passed, it is still only Jarrod Bowen who can match his 41 touches against the opposition. He is higher up in the West Ham ranks than even Moyes was last season.

West Ham plays fewer passes into the opponent's half than ever under Moyes. The percentage of long passes stubbornly refuses to decrease.

Lopetegui stressed that his philosophy is evolving at the London Stadium ahead of the game against Everton, before noting that he has also had to adapt to his players. There were hints in the second half, but he needs more than hints at this point.

Especially when the trio of Lucas Paqueta, Mohammed Kudus and Bowen, who created 94 chances between them last season, are three players who would be on the front line for most other teams. This is not a plan that lacks the resources to make it happen.

Paqueta himself scored almost half of those chances last season, but his decline in form is one of the biggest concerns for Lopetegui. He could be the creative hub he needs, but under Lopetegui his chance creation has fallen by around a third, not helped by a muddled idea behind his role.

It took Moyes time to get the best out of the Brazilian, but last season he found his home almost exclusively on the left flank. This season he has gone inside more, but ironically has affected the game much less.

Understandably, he's barely beating his man half as much as he was, but in a role where he should be creating more, while his chance creation is down around 20 percent, his expected assists are even further down.

Before the international break, things were at their worst at Nottingham Forest, where Paqueta was the one making runs behind the home defense to grab long balls forward from Bowen.

Paqueta is not fast, nor is he a better finisher than Bowen. It was a strange role reversal that will not have helped Lopetegui's attempts to win his players' confidence in his methods.

A dynamic forward would help fill the gap he is struggling to fill. Michail Antonio continues to work hard up front, but at 34 his best years are firmly behind him.

Nicklas Fullkrug was intended to solve some of those problems and is a talented goalscorer, but as a target in his 30s, spending £27 million on a player with virtually no resale value at the time felt desperate. Considering their main summer target was the younger, more mobile Jhon Duran, a move to a player with such a different profile is even more confusing.

Not that West Ham could have anticipated how injury-prone his arrival would be, but considering he has already missed more than half a season through injury on three occasions, they can't say there weren't hints.

This is probably as frustrating for Lopetegui as it is for owner David Sullivan, and will only exacerbate how wasteful West Ham are in front of goal.

Of the 19 players with a Premier League opportunity for the club this season, all but Jarrod Bowen and Crysensio Summerville are underperforming against the xG they have accumulated.

Things are slightly better at the other end, where Alphonso Areola's form is the worst in the Premier League. His 'goals prevented rate' is just over -4.5. He must take responsibility for that, but even in form the Frenchman does not fit naturally into Lopetegui's 'build from the back' intentions.

The Hammers' transfer woes have been laid at the feet of sporting director Tim Steidten, who is said to be in the running for the vacant sporting director position at Arsenal despite a questionable recruitment record at the London Stadium.

Kudus is the only one of the ten major signings under his mandate whose introduction has been a clear success, although last summer's six newcomers could easily still come in handy.

To mitigate, Moyes' influence in his final season gave him significant influence over transfers, and Steidten found himself somewhat sidelined in the incoming revenue.

But the starting midfield at the City Ground of Edson Alvarez and Guido Rodriguez were both clear Steidten signings.

Alvarez has shown promise in his time in London but his disciplinary problems are becoming an increasing problem for the club as he will miss a fifth match through suspension in just one season against Everton on Saturday.

That puts extra responsibility on Rodriguez, who has struggled after a good start – although he also took the time to settle at his previous club Betis.

It doesn't help that in the world's most physically demanding league, both he and Soucek, who have started seven of 11 league games between them, are among the 20 slowest midfielders in the Premier League this season.

Speed ​​alone does not guarantee a functioning midfield, but if West Ham are to control games higher up the pitch, a more dynamic engine is a must, especially with added vulnerability on the counter-attack.

The Declan Rice hole has understandably still not been filled since the start of last season. That's a problem Lopetegui can't solve, but it's a problem he must solve.

He switched to a back three for the first time at Forest, having scored 16 goals in the first nine games. The thinking was that a third centre-back would help plug the gaps left by the attacking license he has given his wing-backs, who end up in the opposition's penalty area almost twice as much as in Moyes's final season.

But Lopetegui's players seem as devoid of confidence and belief as they are of tactical insight at the moment, and even before Alvarez's red card they were already well off the pace.

The debacle at Tottenham just over a month ago summed things up. Unusually determined for 45 minutes after taking an early lead, they collapsed when Yves Bissouma put the hosts ahead for the first time, conceding three times in eight minutes as heads fell.

Lopetegui has stressed the importance of belief and consistency, and this was on display against an equally nervous Everton team in the final match before the international break.

But he is working from such a low level that something significant needs to change before West Ham can upset the odds against a resurgent Newcastle or Mikel Arteta's Arsenal in the two games said to determine his future.

If that's the case, his fate may have already been decided.

Watch Newcastle vs West Ham on Sky Sports Premier League from 6.30pm on Monday, kick-off at 8pm.