If there was a Hammers award for mantra of the season it would surely go to Manuel Pellegrini for his “play like a big team” offering.
There can be no question that it has finally got through with a couple of blips – or rubbish decisions by officials – over recent game.
And it finally reached it’s perfect epicentre with the victory over Spurs. Now we need to carry that into the final two games of the season and break through the 50 points for the season barrier.
Pellegrini has had many challenges in this first season but probably none bigger than proving this central point because injuries and difficult players come and go.
Bad refereeing or lining decisions will always be with usaround and can;t be changed but an attitude of mind within a club can despite it seemingly having been around forever at West Ham.
We have all been sick of playing second and third fiddles to the Chelseas, Arsenals and Spurs’ – he is doing his utmost to change that and I reckon is slowly winning it.
It was to the fore in everything he had to say after the game where on www.whufc.com he explained again: “If you want to be a big team you need good performances from individual players. After that with those good performances you need to play well as a team.
“We defended well, had good possession of the ball, we didn’t lose to many easy balls and created a couple of chances against a team that is in the semi-final of the Champions League and third in the Premier League, a very difficult team with a great manager and very good players.
“The second part of the season we have been conceding too many goals in the games we have played away. It was a very good performance today as a team. Maybe we have to be a little more calm when it was 1-0 to decide the game because we had three or four counter attacks at big pace, we must score.
“But I understand the pressure, this rivalry in London, the fans are happy to win. It is not easy, they are a good team but yes for me it was a complete performance.”
If he focused on big team intensity for 90 minutes he might sort out the problems against the teams in the middle of the table and lower.
You cannot be Serious!
Playing like a so-called ‘big club’ means against Every other club not just clubs the players decide are worthy of their attention.
When are you actually counting ‘forever’ from?
Over the 55+ years I have watched West Ham, their ‘mentality’ was never as poor when the team was filled with relative locals whose lifeblood WAS West Ham. Yes, they upped their performances when playing in local derbies etc but did not delude themselves they were this notional ‘big club’.
They occasionally had a good season but invariably finished in the bottom half, as befits the club they were.
If you believe the attitude of mind requires why not have a go at identifying the causes of such an attitude of mind.
Anyway, there are several definitions of ‘big-club’ and the only one we can possibly fit into is ‘attendance’
Far better to attain even a little consistency for the size club you are than to worry about playing like a bigger one.
The performance on Saturday was good but using the statistics of One game to determine even the start of a counter-intuitive message being successful is absurd.
Taking one game in isolation, maybe; over the season, no chance, since Pellgrini has clearly not properly defined: “big club”.
Still, it fills empty copy.
Clue is in the word “slowly”
I don’t think it’s as easy as that. Everton, Wolves, Leicester have all lost games to poor sides this season. The inconsistency isn’t a unique problem for West Ham and I think it’s an issue with so many foreign players who use our clubs as a stepping stone. Because there are so many mercenaries, they up their game on the biggest stage. I also think it’s so difficult to address the attitude of the squad going in to games against Brighton, Cardiff and the like. Against the top 6, players know they have to play out of their skin to get anything. That, in theory should not be the case for trips to lower placed teams. However, you would hope players would learn their lessons from previous mistakes. It hasn’t happened yet which is why I think our scouting system must be looking at players who hate losing, A winning mentality. Leaders.
I think Gracia at Watford has done the best job this season at instilling the right attitude which is why Watford are over-performing.