Manuel Pellegrini: West Ham United’s 17th manager

[goa127]

Quite a lot in what you say englebert. I thing we were poor on Saturday because every one of our attacking players was below par. Everton's defence had little to trouble them so were able to play with freedom to start attacks. We stand or fall on our front players, there's no plan B. If they're on it we're good, if they're all poor like Saturday, forget it

[OFT]

I knew when people were laughing at Spurs for being knocked out of the cup by Colchester Utd and then smashed by Bayern Munich, it would bite us in the Arse.. we haven't won a game since their cup exit..

Weem cursed ah tells thee.. cursed

Ripping it out of Spurs though... a price worth paying? After all, it's their illusions of grandeur.. we know deep down we're *****.

[Ironing Board]

Pelligrini is trying to play a style of football that fits with what the fans demand. But my point, from when he was appointed, is that someone more pragmatic would be better to lay the foundations.

With Manuel you are trying to build a mansion on shaky ground. I cannot blame him either - he is sticking to his guns and philosophy, which is admirable. He just doesn’t have the tools here. It worked in Spain as the game is slower and more technical, but here it comes across as lethargic without ridiculously good players (Man City)

[Ozza]

I don’t agree with that, he’s done a fairly good job so far (in my eyes) moving us from a back to front team to a team that moves the ball, his recruitment has been decent as well.

The issue as it always is here is the mugs at the top, this club needed a serious overhaul of players as soon as he walked in the door, they need to back him better.

[funky chicken]

his recruitment has been decent as well.

Personally I agree with this. On the whole he has made good signings. Bar Sanchez and at the moment you would have to say Fornals. But Fornals still has time to prove us wrong. And Ajeti hasn't quite had enough minutes for me to judge yet.

The problem is more of who he hasn't signed.

I think it's fair to say we all believed the midfield needed strengthening. The majority of us believed Rice needed a partner. Now erarly in the window it looked like Pellers believed this too going by the bids we apparently made for Andre Gomes. But for some reason when we knew we lost out to Everton we decided to not make a serious move for anyone else. Despite this being a huge world full of millions of players. Instead he decided to go for an attacking midfielder in Pablo Fornals. Not only that decided to let Pedro Obiang leave and not replace him. Obiang may not have been good enough to play every week. But in terms of strength in depth I would prefer to keep him then sell him and sign no one.

The other position we were all concerned about was leftback. Cresswell was not only kept, despite not really suiting our quick, attacking style of play Pellers is trying to create, but agreed to him getting a new contract that lasts until 2023. And is 30 soon as it is!

Although to be fair we have done fairly okay so far and certainly better than I thought we would do, but our defence still conceded a bucket load of goals last season. Well over 50 and again apart from young Cardosa decided to not strengthen that position. Even when we were letting in plenty of goals in pre-season too. Madness!

And we are still sweating on certain players being fit! If Rice gets injured, who comes in for him? If Haller gets injured who comes in for him? If Anderson and/or Yarmo get injured who else do we have now we loaned out Diangana? W

We already are regretting not asking the question of what happens when Fabianski gets injured after deciding not to sign a better prospect Keeper that can grow and eventually replace Fabianski who isn't getting any younger (34-35 years old).

And I know Pezza hinted a couple of months ago if Pellers can't get the player/s he wants he would rather wait than sign anyone. But to me that is idiotic. Now I am not saying just go and sign anyone and it doesn't matter how good they are. But after missing out on Andre Gomes why couldn't we have made a move for someone like Doucoure? And he may not have been Plan A, but what makes us stronger? Having Doucoure in our squad, or signing no one?

Careless decisions like that could easily cost us a better position to finish in the table and will make us far less attractive for new signings next summer.

[Clacton-ammer]

I think overall you have to say he has done more than a decent job, playing much more attractive football, a talented squad all be it lacks hugely in one position (centre midfield - box to box type).

One thing I'm not sure about is if he is a disciplinarian or not? I think our team lacks attitude/bollax at times, does Pellers get into them enough? Saturday against Sheff U is a game made for getting them up for it, win the fight first, or at least match them then you can play your football with more talented players.

[Doc H Ball]

Pelligrini is trying to play a style of football that fits with what the fans demand. But my point, from when he was appointed, is that someone more pragmatic would be better to lay the foundations.

With Manuel you are trying to build a mansion on shaky ground. I cannot blame him either - he is sticking to his guns and philosophy, which is admirable. He just doesn’t have the tools here. It worked in Spain as the game is slower and more technical, but here it comes across as lethargic without ridiculously good players (Man City)

We had the pragmatism with Sam and then your good self. Although things were steadied it ended up with short term fixes and no real foundation or plan going forward.

I agree about MPs style of play being more suited to better teams. Guess he’s been used to having sides who have most of the ball, a solid defence and better players so recreating that here is a big ask. But I’m bloody pleased he’s trying it - he plays as we want us to and I see nothing wrong with that.

Everton was ****. But then it was even worse when we went there with you and it was even worse again when we went there with wasp chewing Sam.

[e17]

Being able to make the Sam & Moyes comparisons do the fella a lot of favours. The area that most concerns me is that, of modern WHU managers who briefly got it right, I always come back to the first season under Slav.

And although it’s fair to say he had a once in blue moon peak star in Payet, I do think it’s forgotten how often the fella made astute and smart tactical switches that got us results in that season. It felt like he actually had a bit of faith in his selection and bench.

Pel worryingly seems to have a mindset that the 11 selected are the be all and end all, and once that doesn’t work out, any change is simply down to who has looked most knackered or useless on that given day.

That’s a consistent area of what he’s paid to do where he looks more like he’s come from the Avram Grant school of management than the Ron Greenwood one

[Morocco Mole]

Anderson classic case in point on Saturday. Not having the best of games but better than Fornals and Lanzini and the one player capable of getting us up the pitch with pace on the counter.

A weird decision and one that made us even worse.

[e17]

Anderson classic case in point on Saturday. Not having the best of games but better than Fornals and Lanzini and the one player capable of getting us up the pitch with pace on the counter.

A weird decision and one that made us even worse.

It felt like he’d taken off the player he expected the most from, rather than the one offering the least

There seems sod all thinking behind the changes

[Cuenca 'ammer]

Doc

while I agree with you in general, I tend to also agree with IB and said so at the time. a little more pragmatic at times. doesn't mean we have to become SA

also I feel that we are becoming a bit like Arsenal. play the ball around and never really go anywhere. where's the plan B ?

also you mention Everton under Sam and Moyes and our game there last season but what about away at Swansea last season ?

I honestly feel as though we play good football at times, decent football at times and shyte football loads of times.

I honestly don't feel that he's getting the best out of the squad. in general.

too many times it seems we come out completely unprepared. or fail to take into account the opponent. or both.

you and others do the miles. if you are happy with what you see then fine. but for the investment (albeit still underfunded) you can't tell me that we have a worse team than Sheff United ? they battled Arsenal yesterday. something I have not seem from us for 90 minutes all season. and for swaths of last.

everyone and every team has "off days." there is absolutely ZERO excuse for lack of effort or being cream crackered at about 60-70 minutes. or both. and for 7M a season I really expect more.

[Doc H Ball]

Hi Cuenca.

I too have doubts - Wimbledon and Oxford were as bad as ever and we stutter in the league. It’s getting tedious to say it but the glaring absence of a decent LB and dynamic DM isn’t a recent thing and he should’ve used his money there. Same with getting rid of every striker then buying just Haller and a prospect.

Having said that overall I’m more than happy with him. He sticks with his attacking formation, trusts his players and gives them a proper run. He likes flair ball players and expects their extra quality to come good. The squad he has assembled is young, talented and was being praised 3 weeks ago for having more long term thinking about it.

Going to games gives no more insight or right to approve a style of play I guess. But it does tend to mean you are more concerned about performance than result.

[westhamlinnet]

I like pellegrini but some of his decision making is questionable why is fornals played as a winger. Why did we not purchase a box to box midfield player which we have been crying out for at least two seasons. Why didn't we keep fernandes he is at least athletic. For the record Moyes did a good job and at least he would have bought in mcginn . However we will never progress under the current owners champagne fans flat lemonade owners

[ayriron]

couple of city fans up here both said the same one of them a season ticket holder so saw a fair bit of Pellegrini,he told me you will get an initial boost because the players will like him and respond to him but he is stubborn to the point of playing players out of position to accomodate others,he also went on about no plan B as some on here have mentioned,he admitted the standard of player they had carried them through a lot where we would struggle, both said he was a gentleman and they liked him but thought the move to China was for the best and were surprised we went for him

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

.............................

[City fans] were surprised we went for him

I'm not surprised G&S went for him, he's exactly the kind of shiny big name their egos crave. What does surprise me is he said yes.

[iLoveLasagne]

His stubbornness irks me. Whilst we have many issues, I do think that element also prevents us from moving up a level. He isn't very progressive and forward-thinking in my view. Maybe if we had a deeper squad we could vary our tactics a lot more. The blame lies with the board, manager and players.

[goa127]

There's no doubt Pellers is stubborn and sometimes makes puzzling decisions (not starting Yarmo), but this description fits nearly every other manager in the league (and definitely Greenwood!). Sometimes it appears that managers are being deliberately awkward, but to be fair none of us really has the inside knowledge of his reasoning. Still maddening though!

[Ironing Board]

We had the pragmatism with Sam and then your good self. Although things were steadied it ended up with short term fixes and no real foundation or plan going forward.

I agree about MPs style of play being more suited to better teams. Guess he’s been used to having sides who have most of the ball, a solid defence and better players so recreating that here is a big ask. But I’m bloody pleased he’s trying it - he plays as we want us to and I see nothing wrong with that.

Everton was ****. But then it was even worse when we went there with you and it was even worse again when we went there with wasp chewing Sam.

Ah, but you overlook my masterful victory in the reverse fixture!

[Lil Joe 17]

There's no doubt Pellers is stubborn and sometimes makes puzzling decisions (not starting Yarmo), but this description fits nearly every other manager in the league (and definitely Greenwood!). Sometimes it appears that managers are being deliberately awkward, but to be fair none of us really has the inside knowledge of his reasoning. Still maddening though!

Probably the puzzling decisions are because of context that as a fan you are not across. Maybe little things that happen during training, whether its performance related or injury related. It's not always a tactical call.

[southendmadhammer]

Not sure how accurate this quote from the earlier presser is:

"I think that first of all, it was very similar to the game we played there last season. They play every ball as a final, they had more energy and they won this game. In any case, it is not three points you can miss too much because Everton is a difficult place to play and team, in their stadium."

But it is very very concerning.