Julen Lopetegui has asked his players to improve their discipline after Mohammed Kudus and Edson Alvarez apologised to the West Ham manager for receiving red cards.
Kudus was sent off in the Hammers’ 4-1 defeat at Tottenham for a shove to the face of Micky van de Ven and Pape Matar Sarr. On Wednesday, his suspension was subsequently extended by two match, with the Ghanaian also fined £60,000 for violent conduct by the Football Association.
Midfielder Alvarez was sent off in last weekend’s 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest. It was his second dismissal of the season already following a sending off against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup back in September.
Both players will miss the Hammers’ crunch match at home to Everton on Saturday, with West Ham in need of a positive result as pressure continues to grow on Lopetegui.
“Of course, both talked and apologised to me and to the team. Both know that they were wrong, this is clear. But it is done.
“We have to learn and to change the future. The past you can never change. You have to focus on changing the future.”
The 58-year-old added: “We have to defend better as a team. We have to try not to give the opponent different advantages that we can avoid, for example the red cards.
“This [Kudus’s conduct against Spurs] was unacceptable, and we have to try to avoid this kind of action. He knows. But this is part of the past. These two players are not going to play Saturday. I prefer to focus on the players that are going to be ready to face Everton.”
