Julen Lopetegui feeling support of West Ham fans as he allays Mohammed Kudus injury fears | OneFootball

Hammers boss admits home form must improve ahead of crucial meeting with winless Ipswich

Julen Lopetegui said his West Ham team deserved to beat Brentford in Saturday’s 1-1 draw as he allayed any injury fears over Mohammed Kudus.

The Hammers earned their fifth point of a difficult start to the season as Tomas Soucek cancelled out Bryan Mbeumo’s first-minute opener at the Gtech Community Stadium.

West Ham remain unbeaten away from home in the league this season but have won only one of their six matches so far, producing a number of subdued performances along the way in the early months of Lopetegui’s tenure.

“I have always felt the support of the fans, always”, the Spaniard said. “Today, too, it was very important keeping us [up] in the bad moments. At least we were able to achieve one point and to finish the match deserving more.

“I feel they support us always, and this is key. It is time to achieve a lot of things right now.

Lopetegui took off both Kudus and Emerson at half-time, replacing them with Carlos Soler and Konstantinos Mavropanos and moving a number of players into new positions.

Lopetegui admitted the importance of beating winless Ipswich at the London Stadium next weekend has grown after failure to claim all three points against Brentford.

“Yes, it is always important to finish with this kind of feeling,” he said. “We have to look forward to the next match.

Lopetegui said of taking off Ghana forward Kudus at the break: “It was a tactical decision. I was thinking that we need that. I was thinking that was better for the team and we needed these kinds of changes.”