Phil Parkes cast his expert eye over the Hammers No 2 stopper Roberto and came to some pretty damning conclusion. In his second exclusive blog for ClaretandHugh he looks at the team’s decline and where we will go from here.

Phil Parkes is talking to Hugh Southon

I can’t  remember a team collapsing into such form as this so quickly…it’s alarming but I don’t agree with those who are calling for Manuel Pellegrini’s head.

I agreed with the appointment and one run of bad games does not justify some of the maulings I’ve seen him getting on social media and elsewhere. He’s a top manager and  there’s no doubts in my mind that he will sort it out so long as the players get their acts together.

(Photo by AMA/Corbis via Getty Images)

For whatever reason the team has lost confidence together and as I said in yesterday’s blog a lot of that is down to the keeper’s form. I reckon Dave Martin is a good keeper and with him between the sticks against Spurs I think you will see a different West Ham.

Too often the manager takes the stick when things go wrong – the screams of ‘sack him’ start, panic sets in and the truth is it’s not down to him but the players.

It happened in teams under John Lyall and back then I had a back four of Ray Stewart, Alvin Martin, Bonzo and Frank. The problem was ours and we had to sort out so that’s what needs to happen now.

There’s a huge confidence crisis and that leads to mistakes on the pitch but these are good players who are going through a lousy spell of games but they WILL bounce back make no mistake.

None of them will need winding up for the game against Spurs and that is exactly the type of game in which you will see them respond. This is no time for panic, this is no time to sack anybody.

During this international break they have the chance to get right down to it and sort out the problems. They are good players but they really do need to take responsibility and stop hiding behind “it’s the manager’s fault” excuses.

They are highly paid professionals, they go out with their instructions and know exactly how the boss wants them to play. It’s down to them. So FOR NOW we need to get off the manager’s back.