Jean-Clair Todibo signing indicates transformative West Ham playing style under Julen Lopetegui | OneFootball

West Ham have signed Nice defender Jean-Clair Todibo on an initial season-long loan deal with an obligation to buy for £34.22m in 2025.

Julen Lopetegui’s side saw off competition from Italian giants Juventus to sign Todibo, who has two senior caps for France.

The Frenchman is the Hammers’ sixth acquisition of the summer. “It is a dream come true to play in the Premier League, the best league in the world,” he said.

West Ham begin their 2024/25 Premier League campaign against Aston Villa on 17 August. It will be Julen Lopetegui’s first competitive outing since replacing David Moyes this summer.

His appointment signals an intent from the powers that be to shift West Ham’s playing style under Moyes, which could be described as pragmatic. The signing of Todibo, in particular, feels like a means to unlock the kind of possession-based football Lopetegui is seeking.

The former Barcelona defender enjoyed another excellent season with Nice, during which he further demonstrated his comfort on the ball, making him an ideal replacement for Kurt Zouma, who is closing in on a move to the UAE.

One area that stood out was Todibo’s 90% pass accuracy compared to Zouma’s 84%, which also ranked higher than every other player in the Hammers’ squad. A notable outing was at Metz in October 2023 when Todibo finished the game with a new record for touches (188), attempted passes (181), and completed passes (165) in Opta’s records.

He might not be the final piece of the jigsaw Lopetegui is assembling, but there’s no doubt Todibo, a centre-back of repute, will be an important cog, especially when you consider that Lopetegui’s teams are solid but unspectacular, possession-based but slow; high-flying but low-scoring.

In his time with Real Madrid and Sevilla, Lopetegui’s teams netted 181 goals in 131 La Liga matches, averaging 1.38 goals per game. Meanwhile, Moyes’ West Ham scored 248 goals in 169 Premier League matches since his return, averaging 1.47 goals per game.

Lopetegui follows two main principles: defensive solidity and possession football. He typically uses a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation, and he emphasizes dominating possession through short passing in the defence and midfield to keep the opposing team away from the goal, aiming to suffocate them through possession.

With its slow tempo, this style of play often leads to low-scoring matches because teams focus on strong defence and prioritize keeping possession of the ball. For a good reason, Lopetegui was selected to succeed Vicente del Bosque as the manager of Spain.

Sevilla’s defence peaked in his final season, conceding the fewest goals of all teams, with only 30, and keeping an impressive 22 clean sheets.

Circling back to Todibo for a second, Nice conceded 29 goals and kept 17 clean sheets in Ligue 1 last season: the best in each metric. Todibo played all but four matches for the side led by Francesco Farioli, now the Ajax coach, keeping 14 shutouts while seeing 26 goals scored past him. Or, if we break it down even further, one goal is conceded every 102.08 minutes.

Lopetegui maintained this strategy as the manager of Wolves. Under his leadership, they scored 23 goals in 23 Premier League matches. During his tenure, Wolves had the lowest expected goals (xG) tally in the league, with 22.1, and created the fewest “big chances”, totalling 21. This was again the result of safe and cautious possession.

Wolves had an average possession of 50.2%, well below Lopetegui’s preference. However, they managed to have 227 open-play passing sequences of 10 or more passes, with an average of 3.49 passes per sequence. This performance was only bettered by the “Big Six” teams and Brighton & Hove Albion, indicating they were making a strong effort despite their possession struggles.

At West Ham, who are eager to advance from Moyes’ tactics, Lopetegui is expected to shift his possession-based game closer to the 60% mark. He will have the time and resources — such as signing the likes of Todibo — to do so, unlike at Wolves.