'Their best player': Everton ace leaves West Ham boss frustrated, he was 'very good' in 0-0 draw

As West Ham United squandered chance after chance in Saturday’s goalless draw with Everton, Julen Lopetegui must have wondered what more he could have done.

The West Ham boss is under pressure amidst a disastrous Premier League start.

But even as his team produced one of their better performances of 2024/25 – though that is admittedly not saying much – the Hammers ran into a goalkeeper who seemed determined to pile even more pressure on the man threatening to lap his rivals given how far he is at the front of the proverbial ‘sack race’.

Jordan Pickford denied Jarrod Bowen with a fine reflex save at his near post in the first-half. The luckless Danny Ings could only look to the sky with disbelief, meanwhile, after Pickford somehow tipped his deflected effort over the top in acrobatic fashion.

Pickford had already denied Ings once by that point. And, on the occasion that West Ham did render the in-form Everton glovesman helpless, Crysencio Summerville’s slide-rule effort rebounded off the base of the post.

West Ham boss frustrated by Jordan Pickford’s Everton heroics

“Our aim was to win the match and we deserved to win the match,” a frustrated Lopetegui told reporters at full-time. “We had enough chances to do so.

“Pickford was their best player in my opinion. He did three or four saves, very good saves, and we also hit the post.

“But I think that despite this, I was not happy with the first-half because we can’t [give a] gift to the opponent for 45 minutes. Okay, we defended well but it was not enough. That’s why I was not happy with the first-half.

“Not because they deserved to win or they had a chance. No, because I think that we didn’t show the energy and the character that we needed.”

Julen Lopetegui takes the positives from Everton stalemate

The gap between West Ham and the relegation zone now stands at just six points, meanwhile, after Gary O’Neil’s Wolverhampton Wanderers side claimed a massive victory over Southampton at Molineux.

But although Pickford’s stellar display will be the main talking point on Saturday evening, West Ham might only be five points above the bottom three right now if it wasn’t for the feline instincts of their own shot-stopper.

Lukasz Fabianski, in for the injured Alphonse Areola, made a fine save himself as he denied Jesper Lindstrom from close range.

“It’s true that we don’t have [some of our players] right now,” Lopetegui adds, Mohammed Kudus and Edson Alvarez suspended as Niclas Fullkrug’s injury issues worsen his nightmare West Ham spell so far.

“Four players, important players, were out. Mo, Edson, Fullkrug, and Alphonse was not on the bench because he had problems. But despite this, I think that the team showed in the second-half that there is an opportunity for the other players too and that they took advantage of this opportunity.

“It was a pity that we didn’t score the goal because we would have liked a fantastic three points for us. But okay, it’s one point. We are looking forward to the next challenge.

“We know that with three or four points more we are looking at our position in another way. We have to achieve this consistency and to be able to improve and to look forward with a positive mind.”