The Hammers boss has said that his star player is suffering from frustrations due to poor results during the international break
West Ham United manager Julen Lopetegui has insisted that Mohammed Kudus needs to cool down on his temper and character in general after he was sent off for violent conduct in the East London derby against Tottenham last weekend.
The Ghanaian is automatically facing a three-match ban and has further been charged by the FA which could see him serving an extended six-game ban if convicted of the further charge but West Ham have appealed against his FA
misconduct rap.
However, amid Kudus losing his head in the derby, others believe the moment of madness was a public display of persistent frustrations including the one between himself and Lopetegui. The Ghanaian was seen kicking a seat in the dugout when he was substituted following a bust-up with his coach in the dressing room at half-time in the 1-1 against Brentford as Lopetegui accused him of not playing for the team.
Amid all these allegations, the Spaniard manager insists Kudus came back from the international break with lots of frustrations since Ghana lost to Sudan with Kudus acting as the new captain and now the West African country is on the verge of missing Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in over two decades.
“He brings his frustration with his national team, too, because they [Ghana] didn’t win both their two matches,” Lopetegui said as quoted by AshesGyamera.com.
“I talked with him about frustration. It can never be an excuse to lose your head. You have to use this frustration to better, to overcome, bad Woments.
“But not to do this. He knows that. When you come back from international break, each player has a different experience – some positive, some negative.
We talk about this.
“We try to talk in this case with him: ‘OK, you have to put your focus on the league and forget this until the next break. This frustration can happen inside you. That’s why you have to learn to handle this frustration, in sport, in life.”
“Unfortunately Kudus is going to be out for three matches because his behaviour was not good and he knows that.
“He knows he has to improve because this can’t happen. I hope it’s the last time this happens. I’m sure it is not going to happen [again].
“I talked with him and sometimes you don’t have to talk a lot about this kind of situation because he knows it was a mistake. I say, for sure, that he will learn about this incident and his behaviour will handle this better in the future,” he concluded.
Kudus will be in the stands when West Ham face Manchester United on Saturday.