West Ham still have no appetite to fire Manuel Pellegrini and believe the return of Lukasz Fabianski and Manuel Lanzini could set things back on course.
There has been a lobby within the club hierarchy for weeks believing the return of Fab, in particular, will play a major part in restoring stability and confidence throughout the team.
That, with the outstanding form of Michail Antonio, and a fully recovered Manu Lanzini is seen as being able to produce the chemistry to see the team shake off the dreadful form blight of recent weeks.
There is also believed to have been a frank exchange of views on the need for him to take a good look at his system which – with the help of Felipe Anderson’s illness – finally saw the team firing as an attacking force with two up at Southampton.
However, the return to a one up formation could see him in deep trouble as, an in form Lanzini apart, there is not the creativity in the team to make that work.
Six points from the last 12 is also seen as a respectable return and should the team remain unbeaten over the next two games the manager will be treading on much firmer ground.
I don’t think six points out of twelve is a good return, but let’s hope MP has seen the light and Carrie’s on playing two up front whether be with Anderson or Lanzini for creativity, but let’s not forget Fornals who is now getting into the premiership game speed.
Agreed. 12 points out of 12 yields less than 40 points. Need to do better than that
12 out of 12 yields 114 points, a perfect season.
6 of lasy 12 would yield 56 pts…
Will be superb to have fab back he has been missed for sure . It will give the back four more confidence but still think we need to keep two up top . Anderson can fit into that system as a number 10 but who would we drop ! COYI
Do not see Lanzini as being the missing link and he is not proving to have any real chemistry and seems to run into trouble.
Neither he or Yarmolenko provide a really positive contribution and defensively are both too fragile.
Will be pleased to see Fabianksi back though, although it will be a shame for Martin who should have been brought in much earlier and has performed admirably.
First and foremost he has to stick with 2 up front.Fabianski will be a huge boost when back between the sticks but i hope Pellegrini does not think his problems will just disappear when he is back playing.We all realised months ago that their were serious problems with formations ,tactics and player selection.Strengthening in key positions is a must in January and our pensioner owners need to open those wallets and let the moths see some Winter sunshine.
Since our next two games are only two days apart we need many options – so it will be good to have Anderson if not for Palace then for Leicester
I think right now our bench shows a lack of depth in the squad which should be addressed at least partially in the January window – otherwise whether it is Pelle or A N Other we will be in trouble
Fab is the key to m.p future..doesn’t really say alot for the team really does it …all it says is that he gets out inept defence out of trouble all the time when they make mistakes …the defence is there to protect our keeper but with us our keeper is protecting our defence ,and awful manager…
Wow
Agree with others re Lanzini, his best performances in a WHU shirt were normally when we are playing a basketball style very open game against teams that want to attack. Against stubborn opposition can’t recall him playing any key passes as mentioned earlier Formals looks more creative, giving and going. Wilshere has the ability but not the desire or dynamism. We could do with a ball winner that can pass alongside Rice so we can control the middle of the park better, Looking forward to Fab’s return COYI!!!
Hold on a minute, you just said the same thing about Antonio…another 9 posts and we’ll have a team.
Albeit obviously true we have & are missing Fab , I still think the main ingredient to our woeful points tally is down to our formation , team selection & tactics . Surely Pelligrini has learned something at last .