Set pieces are costing us dearly, says Pellegrini

  • by Staff Writer
  • Wednesday, 4th December 2019

Manuel Pellegrini believes that a lack of attention at set pieces cost West Ham dearly once again.

Leander Dendoncker was the latest opponent to profit from West Ham's inability to successfully defend corners as he struck to score Wolves' first goal in last night's 2-0 defeat at Molineux.

And the boss admitted that the number of goals conceded from such situations was becoming a serious problem.


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"I think that, for me, the big mistake we made was conceding from the set piece again," said Pellegrini during his post-match press conference.

"It was a very tight game in the first 45 minutes. We dominated most part of the second half. We had one opportunity to draw the game, but we didn't take that chance and they counter attacked and found the space for the second goal.

"Even before this game we have conceded too many goals [from set-pieces]. Newcastle scored three from set pieces, Crystal Palace two, Bournemouth also; it's at least eight or ten goals now.

"We will see what we must do but they are decisive goals and it allowed Wolves to manager their game, it was so important to score the first goal."

Despite the defeat Pellegrini claimed that he was happy with his players' performance - even though club record signing Sebastian Haller, for one, has now gone 12 games without a goal.

"I don't try to analyse individual performances but I was happy with the attitude of the team," he added. "I think we dominated the most part of the game especially the second half, but Antonio couldn't play so we needed to use the players we have.


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We tried to change our way of playing because we were not creating too many chances. Nathan [Holland) has good speed on the wing so we changed the system to try and score, but we couldn't do it.

"Sebastien worked a lot during the game, Ajeti has good speed and has good attacking instinct {which I why we made the change for] the last 15 minutes.

"But I wasn't happy with the intensity that we had today, we need more quality to create more chances in the last third."

And the manager also revealed that he was happy with the overall outcome from West Ham's last two away matches.

"If you draw both games against Wolverhampton and Chelsea then you are happy - but we have three points," he said. "Of course we wanted to win two games in a row but we couldn't - and I think it is more important to win our home games."

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