West Ham United goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski during the Premier League match at London Stadium. (Photo by Nigel French/PA Images via Getty Images)
I’m beginning to like Luzasz Fabianski very much and I’m not talking about a couple of outstanding saves at the weekend.
This morning he has come out with an assessment of the performance against Bournemouth which gives a fresh insight into the Hammers problems and is sounds spot on the me.
And it it both instructive and uplifting to hear the Pole explain what he thinks the issues may be at the moment and what the manager has been trying to get across in his post match pressers.
He said: “From my perspective, every time we had the ball in possession, we just wanted to go straight forward and maybe we have to be more balanced in some situations and take our time a little bit with playing our football and keeping possession, rather than just trying to get it forward.
“Maybe that’s what he (Manuel Pellegrini) meant when he said [we didn’t trust ourselves], that when we get possession we need to score. If we relax a bit more and take care of the ball a bit better, then we will benefit.
“We are a new group of players and it will take time, but hopefully it will click soon. I hope the fans will understand the situation and I think they do.
It’s important that they are supportive in every single game and keep believing in the team, because this group of players really has something quite good in terms of quality and, with a little more work, we will see the effects on the pitch.”
Easy to say difficult to do, the midfield in particular has been like that since Bilic’s early matches. None of the team except Zaba sprint back to defensive positions I am not sure why that is perhaps it comes from Noble he is the leader on the pitch but Pelle should spot it and get players to train it so they do it every time, its like a boxer when you fire out a punch you train to pull your gloves back as soon as possible because if you don’t you are wide open to a counter punch, football is the same when you attack you risking men forward when the attack finishes the defence needs to start as quickly as the attack, its common sense isn’t it ?
I totally agree with everything you say. To this effectively we need pace in midfield to break quickly but yet recover quickly. Unfortunately neither Noble or Wilshere have pace and here lies the problem. I am still trying to understand why is the manager not seeing this. We will not improve until he makes the changes here so he can stick with these two but we will continue to lose games. Obiang and Sanchez are two players who are in contention but I watched the U23 game against City and I have to say I was so impressed by Oxford, I actually believe he could do a fabulous job for us as a holding midfielder and by the way this lad can move – he has some pace. It is time to make the big calls, put Oxford and Sanchez in midfield against Arsenal, drop Noble and Wilshere. We are definitely going to lose the game with Noble and Wilshere in the team as we have no pace to close down Arsenal so now put in two players who have pace and see the difference. I would also move Anderson to 10. Pelle come on let’s learn from the first two games and make the changes we need. The sign of a good manager is a manager who is prepared to change for the benefit of the team.
Only 2 matches in but certainly very worried about the way we defend and who is selected. No pace or energy in midfield and a defence with Arthur in, Carroll can defend better! Would of settled for a nil nil against Bournemouth until the team gels but we are getting cut open like a knife through butter. Maunuel needs to step up and select the right formation and balance the team at the moment he looks like a fish out of water, bring on the Arse and let’s beat them tactically, defend well and break like a team out the starting blocks .
No point in having a football team that doesn’t attack ,,,, pointless argument .
Where were you for the second goal ?? . Should have been yours old bean .
Don’t know how you can consider Fabianski to be spot on with his analysis ! , Hugh .
Mystery .
Yes, rather like trying to get footballers not to ball-watch. However, when they do not ball-watch, they get slated for marking the man (often, literally).
Actually, we might as well blame the Guardiola-esque concept of players being prepared to fulfil multiple roles (in the same game).
The difference being, that he has the players capable of multiple roles, whereas most of the rest are lucky if they have players capable of just the one.
It seems to me that too many coaches are trying to get their players to adapt to formations and styles suited to only those with at least 7-8 world class players in their team.
On Saturday, it was like watching a school playground game.