Manuel Pellegrini: West Ham United’s 17th manager

[Cuenca 'ammer]

surprised after such a rich vein of form and probably our best player so far this season, Yarmo got dropped.

[Metal Hammer]

surprised after such a rich vein of form and probably our best player so far this season, Yarmo got dropped.

I would imagine he was rested rather than dropped

[Cuenca 'ammer]

however you put it, our best player didn't play. it's early doors so he shouldn't be cream crackered. and he didn't travel halfway around the world either.

didn't see the game so don't know if he would have made a difference. best players play.

[Bend it like Repka]

My fear is that we are starting to see the Slaven effect. Lot's of promise early on, real potential on the teamsheet, but after the honeymoon period is over we see a team that looks lazy, unmotivated, lacking in method and bang average.

A team containing Lanzini and Anderson should be dynamic and have some flair. We showed nothing today. Barely looked like scoring at any point.

Palace was poor and this was worse. Pellers needs to do something asap.

[bubbles1966]

Our players aren't lazy, they aren't unfit - they are just all clumped together in an unbalanced midfield that is naturally slow.

We play 4-1-4-1, and TBH, with the exception of Arfur - the 4-1.....-1 did what they could today - but the midfield was absolutely shocking and this formation relies on the 4 between Rice and Haller to get up and down the pitch at pace to provide support where it's needed, but they just don't. They are much of a muchness.

The signing of Fornals looks, at this stage, like an horrendous failure to prioritise correctly.

Snodgrass starts for me from this point onwards, with Wilshere, Fornals, Lanzini and Noble essentially playing for one position.

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Our players aren't lazy, they aren't unfit - they are just all clumped together in an unbalanced midfield that is naturally slow.

We play 4-1-4-1, and TBH, with the exception of Arfur - the 4-1.....-1 did what they could today - but the midfield was absolutely shocking and this formation relies on the 4 between Rice and Haller to get up and down the pitch at pace to provide support where it's needed, but they just don't. They are much of a muchness.

The signing of Fornals looks, at this stage, like an horrendous failure to prioritise correctly.

Snodgrass starts for me from this point onwards, with Wilshere, Fornals, Lanzini and Noble essentially playing for one position.

You are being kind on Rice IMHO.
If he is playig the 1 in 4-1 he did a very poor job of it. He provided no protection at all and the game completely passed him by.
I don't think Haller was much better in the lone striker role either.
All of the back 4 were OK given how little protection/ support they got, with ogbonna the pick of the bunch again

[Cuenca 'ammer]

Lanzini used to play wide left for us - a position that Anderson now fills. would it be better to drop Anderson and move Lanzini back wide ? neither seem to be "pulling up trees."

[Barking Iron]

He’s really starting to grate on me, he should be doing better with that team

[DannyboyDJL]

You are being kind on Rice IMHO.
If he is playig the 1 in 4-1 he did a very poor job of it. He provided no protection at all and the game completely passed him by.
I don't think Haller was much better in the lone striker role either.
All of the back 4 were OK given how little protection/ support they got, with ogbonna the pick of the bunch again

Rice is 20 and getting no help from the lads along side him.

[bubbles1966]

Rice is being hung out to dry, Crouchie.

Our players got caught in possession 20 times today and whenever they rolled forward Rice was essentially there with the back 4 hoping to hold the fort.

Noble, Fornals, Lanzini were awful. Part of the reason for that is that they shouldn't all be on the pitch at the same time.

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Rice is being hung out to dry, Crouchie.

Our players got caught in possession 20 times today and whenever they rolled forward Rice was essentially there with the back 4 hoping to hold the fort.

Noble, Fornals, Lanzini were awful. Part of the reason for that is that they shouldn't all be on the pitch at the same time.

He certainly isn't getting any help but he is being touted as an £80m player so should be doing a better job of breaking up opposition attacks.
He needs to improve his positioning and not go walkabout. Iwobi, who was playing a central role, had the freedom of Goodison Park
I think we need a proper disciplined DM alongside him.

[DannyboyDJL]

He certainly isn't getting any help but he is being touted as an £80m player so should be doing a better job of breaking up opposition attacks.
He needs to improve his positioning and not go walkabout. Iwobi, who was playing a central role, had the freedom of Goodison Park
I think we need a proper disciplined DM alongside him.

He's not going walkabout, he's trying to cover for players who aren't working hard enough. You can be the best player in the world, but if you are outnumbered there's not much you can do.

[Korea Hammer]

I think we need a proper disciplined DM alongside him.

That Gomes bloke looked good.

[hammer1975]

The options to resolve the midfield problem are all the same as last season.

We haven’t progressed at all. That seemed likely at the end of the transfer window. The only difference to last season is ridiculously inflated expectations. We’ll continue to have games and spells where we are hopelessly uncompetitive because Pellegrini tries to be too technical and not pragmatic, we’ll then have spells where we put a run together and people will get carried away. Today was unacceptable but it won’t be the last time imo.

Whether that’s the manager, the players, the board or (more likely) a combo of all of them is unclear.

Take a positive. At least our balance sheet and PnL numbers will look shiny this year though.

[Diz]

Truth is basically half the squad don't give a ****. I rate Pellergrini and want him to succeed here but it's the lacklustre attitude that comes to head in many games that piss me off. All well and good slating the team afterwards but let's face it, it's not like we didnt see this coming. Little signs, only half the squad came over to "thank us" the other, just walked off. Theyhave no affinity to us, they're picking up thousands a week That in itself is for the manager to implement. Only Diop and Ogbonna can come with any credit, bizarre seeing as we lost. Roberto some great saves but needs to command the back line better. As for the rest they have shown why we won't be top 8 this season

[e17]

Rice is being hung out to dry, Crouchie.

Our players got caught in possession 20 times today and whenever they rolled forward Rice was essentially there with the back 4 hoping to hold the fort.

Noble, Fornals, Lanzini were awful. Part of the reason for that is that they shouldn't all be on the pitch at the same time.

Yeah spot on Bubs

It’s getting tiring to watch to be honest

[One Peter Butler]

I can’t locate the part in MP’s interview where he had the decency and good manners to at least apologise to the 3,000 poor souls that travelled and paid to watch that today!?

[Universidad-de-Chile]

Our players aren't lazy, they aren't unfit - they are just all clumped together in an unbalanced midfield that is naturally slow.

We play 4-1-4-1, and TBH, with the exception of Arfur - the 4-1.....-1 did what they could today - but the midfield was absolutely shocking and this formation relies on the 4 between Rice and Haller to get up and down the pitch at pace to provide support where it's needed, but they just don't. They are much of a muchness.

The signing of Fornals looks, at this stage, like an horrendous failure to prioritise correctly.

Snodgrass starts for me from this point onwards, with Wilshere, Fornals, Lanzini and Noble essentially playing for one position.

I agreed in some points.

I really felt last game against Palace, thats was a typical game for a player like Snodgrass.

We are also missing something Obiang did last season.

In the first goal against Everton away last season, he did the pass to Arnie for the 0-1

He could have been not the best player technically, but someone was not suffering from such a "changing mentality" as Anderson sometines.. like now... where he looks to be mentally somewhere else...

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Obiang, despite being inconsistent, did offer us something different as he could play between the lines and could deliver a cracking through ball

I think Rice could play that Obiang role..., pushing further forward, breaking up play but with licence to attack more and make key passes

Trouble is we then need someone to sit behind him

[MrHammer73]

And we will have Sheffield United next week, who will will right in our faces. A game for Snodgrass with Lazini dropping out with Fornals.

We were told Obiang would be replaced and Fornals was not his replacement, he was essentially a replacement for Nasri.

So looks like Sullivan has hung Pellers out to dry, with everybody questioning Pellers judgement on replacing Obiang for Fornals.