Julen Lopetegui shares what the West Ham players told him after Fulham draw

West Ham United head coach Julen Lopetegui would have been delighted with the way that his team stole a late point against Fulham yesterday.

Julen Lopetegui received plenty of criticism from the West Ham fans throughout the game, and rightly so – he got his team selection wrong in so many ways.

Tomas Soucek was hooked at half-time, and many people are asking why Julen Lopetegui started the Czech midfielder for West Ham in the first place?

I feel like the Hammers were extremely lucky to escape Craven Cottage with a point in the end.

Fulham were by far the better team on the day, and they could have been 3-0 up at half-time in all fairness.

Credit to the West Ham players for battling on until the end, but big improvements will be needed against Chelsea next weekend for sure.

So what did the players think of the game yesterday? Lopetegui has lifted the lid on something they told him after the full-time whistle.

Julen Lopetegui shares what West Ham players told him after Fulham

It was a very good point for the Hammers in the end. The fact that Lopetegui was brave enough to make changes at half-time and then throughout the course of the second-half was admirable.

In my opinion, that was a very big positive, but there were plenty of negatives as well.

Our defence looked incredibly disorganised at times – a case in point was when Adama Traore burst through our defence like a hot knife through butter.

We really did look extremely vulnerable at times.

The Spaniard discussed his side’s performance, when speaking to BBC reporters after the game.

And he responded when asked about the decision not to award Fulham a penalty in the first-half.

Lopetegui said, “I didn’t see the action but the players say it was no penalty.“

I have to say, I feel like we were lucky to get away with that one yesterday.

West Ham players rode their luck

On another day, Fulham could have easily been awarded a spot-kick in the first-half.

Had referee Tim Robinson blown up when Traore was brought down by Max Kilman, the outcome could have been very different in the end.

Don’t get me wrong, the powerful Fulham winger is notoriously hard to defend against.

However, I just feel like our defenders gave him way too much respect.

And that’s something that Lopetegui must address during training this week.

Chelsea have plenty of potent attackers who are capable of causing us bother next weekend, unless our defenders are 100 per cent on the ball.

West Ham got away with one yesterday, despite what the players told Julen Lopetegui after the game.