'Opportunity to reset and go again with a new man in the dugout'

I wrote last week that I was beginning to lose patience with Julen Lopetegui and what he was trying to do at West Ham.

The Nottingham Forest defeat took me from being willing to give him time to not really knowing where any improvement was going to come from. I hoped it would come on Saturday against Everton.

Put simply, it needed to. But it didn't. There was no improvement.

The fact is, we were fortunate to come up against an Everton side with their own issues. If they were a bit more organised and a bit more clinical, they would have left London Stadium with three points in the bag without much effort at all.

From West Ham's perspective, it was tepid. It was lacking of any kind of identity or of any kind urgency. Aside from Crysencio Summerville hitting the post or a Jordan Pickford 'wondersave' in the final moments, we did not really show any real desire to beat the Toffees.

That is a huge concern for me and evidence West Ham should really be using this international break as an opportunity to reset and go again with a new man in the dugout.

The quicker the decision is made, the quicker things can be sorted and someone else can get to work on getting this West Ham squad, which is packed with top talent, playing to its full potential.

Because Lopetegui is failing to do it. He has failed to do it. The bulk of this Hammers squad won a European trophy not too long ago. Some are world-class footballers when they are on form. Many are full internationals.

There is absolutely no reason why they should be struggling like they currently are, unless it is because they are not fully on board with the manager's message.

It has become strikingly obvious that is the major issue here.

Find more from James Jones at We Are West Ham