(Photo by James Griffiths/West Ham United FC via Getty Images)
Manuel Pellegrini – as he must at the moment I guess – continues to defend his £25 million summer signing through thick and thin.
With a quarter of the season almost gone the Spanish midfielder has yet to show any sort of form and was pulled off at the weekend after a nightmare 45 minutes.
However, when you have spent that sort of money there’s no way you can admit to the facts in front of you I suppose and the manager continues to plead for more time.
To some extent we get it but surely it’s fair to expect a bit more than we have seen so far from the fella who at this stage looks lost in the Premier League.
Pellegrini restrained his comments to one line implying that he needs more time but you don’t get a lot of that at the highest level and this, no doubt, the questions will continue to be posed about the player.
The manager said: “It is normal for a player that comes from another league to have some months to adapt to the different kind of games, different pace from the Spanish league. I am happy with him. As a manager, I am regretting missing the three points against Crystal Palace at home more.”
“Maybe the result was not so terrible but two games in a row, two defeats in a row, two games with dropped points, only two points from the last 12. It is not just about [the absent, injured Aaron] Cresswell or Fornals or one player, as a team we need to return to the way we played a couple of weeks ago.
For me that rates as one if not the worst game I have watched the hammers play, and I use the word play very loosely. The ability to do simple passing seems to have been lost, I mean Anderson is by far the worst but he is not alone. The one I feel sorry is Haller, he remined me of Carrol. In the box waiting for a cross, but nothing coming, just wasted chances.
On Saturday only Roberto looked like he knew where he was supposed to be playing but only because he was the keeper and needed to be somewhere near our goal! I have spent nearly sixty years watching the Hammers and this performance against Everton was up there with the worst. It’s difficult to see where to start working on an improvement when everything is wrong but it seems that it does not work playing Rice and Noble together. Most teams play with a holding midfielder together with a box to box player. Despite knowing this for the last few transfer windows we chose not to bring in the box to box type of midfielder. Playing Rice and Noble together stops the team breaking quickly and forces the defence to play too deep. This is creating a massive gap in the middle of the pitch which the opposition is flooding into and running. Rice is an England international and should not now need Noble to babysit him. Much as I admire Noble for his efforts over the years I think that it is time for Mark to be Rice’s cover on the bench and start with a more dynamic player in his place.