Manuel Pellegrini has explained the team’s weekly training regime and indicated that defensive duties have been prioritised although there were clearly problems at the other end against City.
Speaking in his pre-Newcastle presser he said: “We work every week, it doesn’t matter against who we play, to try to improve our performance.
After that we dedicate one day of the week to the team we are playing against with the characteristics of the other team. We try to improve, not only in defending, but everywhere.
Maybe, when you make a mistake as a goalkeeper, it’s a goal, or if you make mistake as a centre-back and the goalkeeper doesn’t save you, it’s a goal. Everyone has a responsibility to defend well, though.
In the other sense, I said after we finished the game against Man City, they created six chances and scored four goals, but we created six chances and didn’t score goals, and had eight corners to one, so the responsibility in defending and attacking is for the whole team and not just individual players.”
ClaretandHugh says: The simple truth is that West Ham still need to improve everywhere. Yes there were a couple of disappointing moments at the back against City and Arthur Masuaku has taken a mauling for it as a result. And whilst he must shoulder responsibility, a look back at the video demonstrates there were a number in the box who failed to get close to preventing the goals. The middle of the team remains a problem and as a result the transfer window can’t come soon enough. For despite £100k in the summer there are still problems caused by a history of average buys. Up front we remain far too reliant on Marko Arnautovic to the point where should he go down in the last few minutes as happens a little too regularly we spend the rest of the week talking about whether he will be fit for the following game. We are playing a team this weekend from which we should take something and it needs to happen.