West Ham look to former Champions League manager as Julen Lopetegui fights to save job after Leicester defeat

Sergio Conceicao is a candidate to replace Julen Lopetegui as West Ham boss, talkSPORT understands.

He Hammers The season seemed to turn a corner last week when they won at Newcastle, but they have since suffered heavy defeats against Arsenal and Leicester.

West Ham has four wins in 14 Premier League games and is 14th in the standings, six points above the relegation zone.

Lopetegui has failed to turn them into a competitive team and the pressure on him increased following their poor defeat at the King Power Stadium on Tuesday.

And if West Ham decide to make a change, Conceicao could compete for the job at the London Stadium.

Conceicao left Porto in June after a seven-year spell in which he won the Portuguese league title three times.

The 50-year-old coach, who previously played for Olhanense, Academica, Braga, Vitoria Guimaraes and Nantes, also has champions league experience.

West Ham manager Tim Steidten is understood to be a big admirer of Conceicao.

talkSPORT reported last month that he has become of interest to West Ham and other Premier League teams that wish to change coaches.

Conceicao is the latest name linked as a possible replacement for Lopetegui, who replaced David Moyes in the summer.

Former Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic has been rang of West Ham and is admired by club boss Steidten.

Terzic has past experience with the Hammers, having been assistant coach to Slaven Bilic during his tenure from 2015 to 2017.

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West Ham's loss to Leicester was the seventh game in all competitions this season in which they conceded at least three goals.

Opposing teams have scored against them 27 times in the Premier League alone and have a goal difference of minus nine.

Although their current league standings make for disappointing reading, the upcoming matches offer great chances of climbing up the table.

If Lopetegui remains in his position, his team will host the Wolves at home on Monday night.

West Ham will then travel to Bournemouth before matches against Brighton and Southampton either side of Christmas Day.

After the defeat against Leicester, Lopetegui stated: “It's not easy, because we deserved much more. We had 31 shots, many chances and we didn't score.

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“We have to do better and avoid this statistic. We had to take more risks in the second half and a good team will take advantage of it. We have to be more effective, as always, when you are able to create this number of opportunities.” Let's mark one.

“We are very frustrated for the fans and the players because they did not deserve to lose.

“But (we lost) and we have to recover. The energy and faith for the next challenge is knowing that this is the way to change the situation.”