West Ham United manager Julen Lopetegui has apologised to fans after a heavy defeat at the hands of Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon.

The Hammers were comfortably defeated 3-0 by the Reds at City Ground thanks toa first-half goal from Chris Wood and second-half goals from form Chelsea players Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ola Aina.

The team was disappointing but more than in the game until the hosts tool the lead. Lopetegui said: “After the second goal it was a very different match and it was a hard day for us and for our fans too. That’s why we have to say first of all sorry for our fans. We are very disappointed today and we have to use these hard moments to push forward and to look forward to the next challenge.

“We know that, even if you are showing control [in the early part of the match], you have to avoid the counter-attack, you have to defend the crosses better.It happened that they scored a goal in this action and after the goal it was more difficult for us.”

Edson Alvarez was sent off just before half-time after a rash foul on Anthony Elanga which earned the Mexican a second yellow card. This all but confirmed the win for Forest, the Hammers stood firm but a goal from Hudson-Odoi lost all hope for the East Londoners.

The Hammers manager said: “We had a very clear chance to level the match before the red card.

“It was a key minute because we were not able to equalise and then straight away it’s a red card. Before the half-time break we were thinking about any changes and looking forward to the second half. At the start of the second half we were able to have three or four corners, waiting for our moment to level the match. Unfortunately they scored the second goal.”

“We can and we have to do much better” he continued.

“You can prepare the team but the players have to take the right decisions and we have to play with eleven men.  It’s one of the situations we can avoid because there was no danger of this. We had a lot of players in our box. It is a big advantage for the opponent above all because there is a lot of time in front of you. You are losing the match so it was a bad moment for us and a very good moment for them because they wanted to damage us on the counter-attack.”

West Ham cannot afford to keep playing like this, a defence this poor cannot win matches in the Premier League. The Hammers midfield leaves so many gaps, leaving a defence with many great players exposed to a level where even the worlds best players would concede a lot of goals. They have a great chance to bounce back next weekend as we host Everton.

Lopetegui claimed: “We have to look forward to the next challenge against Everton and try to use this moment to remind us and push us up.

“Hopefully we can get everybody back together and regroup. I think that we need to have this kind of environment against Everton at home. It’s going to be hard but for sure it’s going to be important for us. We have to be ready to prepare for this match this week and to think that there are a lot of points in front of us. But if we want to achieve good things we have to compete better. We have to be more consistent.

It’s not about winning against Manchester United. It’s about being able to compete always.”