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Pellegrini must root out those who can’t believe!

How and why West Ham can produce such totally performances such as that against Cardiff after the brilliantly composed display against Newcastle would probably defeat a psychiatrist.

It was another day which sits alongside those at Bournemouth, Wolves and Brighton and is impossible to fathom when considering those against Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and, despite the defeat, Manchester City.

In reality it is all very West Ham. The only certainty at this club as we all know so well,  is the uncertainty – a Hammers reality which stretches back over the decades.

It is of course easy to blame the players and the manager, by regularly repeating his “big club” mantra  has set himself up to be shot at when it goes as badly wrong as it did in Wales.

He will know that, as will the players, but frankly I think the issue goes deeper and is about the mentality of this club and some of the players in it rather than anything else.

For years we and they have become used to  yo-yoying between the first and second levels and the players have regularly been looking over their shoulders at possible relegation. Convincing them this is a big club therefore, is no easy trick to pull.

As we head towards the end of Pelle’s first season, I believe we will see a summer when he brings in players with a different attitude to some of those in his charge right now.

Maybe some of them have become too used to failure or mediocrity to ever believe they can become big players with a big club.

I don’t know who they are but I have no doubt that the boss and his staff do and I also believe that’s why he’s blooding so many youngsters. It’s a club in transition and some faces will be outed.

My hope is that he has several new faces lined up for the summer as he gets to grips with building a club and team in HIS image, rather than one which has hung around the club for too long.

I can only describe that as “a nice little club with a team that scares nobody.”

If there are players in our football club with an attitude of mind which doesn’t match the manager’s – and the body language of one or two is poor – they need rooting out once and for all.

It’s all about belief and the non believers need to go.

 

COYI

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

6 comments on “Pellegrini must root out those who can’t believe!

  1. West Ham has never been a big club and with the current playing attitude never will be .
    We constantly hype ourselves up and give the opposition the motivation needed to beat us .
    But it’s nothing new . Seen it too many times and at my age believe me it’s many times .
    If we are to be a “ Big Club “ then attitudes & mentalities & respect for the the shirt need to be thougherly revisited and sorted out . Also , players should stay off of social media .

  2. That was complacency expecting to turn up and turn Cardiff over why do they not learn. Shocking attitude & performance , where was the fight and passion , nowhere to be seen. This is not good enough , those players should work harder !

  3. When we began our good run in December, we were winning our away games ( including against lower teams ). I believe it was just a case of playing our best side. This result now gives Pellegrini the chance to dump any loyalty, and go back to our best team.
    Next game I expect to see Balbuenna and Arnie starting the games. Hernandes has never done enough to ever win me over, and Ogbonna will always revert to his normal form. Anderson is doing enough to show why no top clubs wanted him. He is too inconsistent. Geo was right; he should have been dropped for Antonio. My next team would be :
    Fabianski
    Fredericks/Johnson Balbuenna Diop Cresswell
    Rice Noble
    Antonio Lanzini Snodgrass / Anderson
    Arnautovic

  4. I posted recently that I do think that Pelle is an improvement on Moyes – so I can’t go back on that. However there are a few things that Pelle could learn from Moyes – mainly on how to fit a system to the available players rather than the other way around (e.g. to my knowledge Moyes was not a great fan of three at the back but saw that it was the best method for players at his disposal). After our 4 losses at the beginning of the season Pelle played three out and out midfielders (Noble, Rice and Obiang) – maybe he could begin the next away game like that and keep us solid and rotate the creative players

    In a Way Slav got fired because he refused to stick to 3 at the back (dare I say it because he wanted to show a “big team mentality”)

    • Excellent comment!
      The ‘we are abig club; concept is arrogant, at best.
      Silk purses and Sows’ ears spring to mind.
      Same speech from Nobles and others after every such shambolic performance.
      Pellegrini is merely demonstrating that he has no idea how to fit the available resource, relying instead, on his ‘we are a big club’ mentality.
      Over 60 years I have seem some inept performances but few to beat yesterday’s disgrace.
      It took just 3-4 minutes to realise that we would be lucky to leave with NIL!
      As one-dimensional as Carroll might be, he is at least fit to ‘wear the shirt’. Hernadez certainly is not and Fredericks justifies his free-transer price………….and so on.

  5. We need better players simple, Snoddy and Noble have heart but lack quality, Balbuena if he can find the form is head and shoulders above most defenders in the PL Diop alongside gives us stability and Zab is 10 times as good as Fredericks even if slower he prevents crosses into dangerous areas through good defending and recovers the ball far more often. We have a lot of potential but need serious investment to get to next level.

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