Manuel Pellegrini somehow managed to express disappointment because he believed the Hammers produced a good performance ….err what?
Maybe something was lost in translation some down the line because that is an impossible for even his biggest fans to follow after the display against Everton.
Discussing the game with the BBC sports team afterwards however he made it clear that words had been exchanged in the dressing room after the game.
It’s sometimes a little difficult to understand precisely the point he is trying to express but his thoughts today sent out very mixed messages because this truly was an awful performance.
Next week it’s Sheffield United at home and after such a bright start to the season things are starting to fall apart a little as the Hammers played more with hope than conviction.
Maybe a back to basics approach is needed as we go into opposition with the newly promoted Blades
A bit of perspective – Win a game against anyone we are world beaters – lose a game we are going down with the lowest points total in Premiership history.
You can only play as well as the opposition let you.
Everton are better than us – period – Top 6 at the end of the season probably
Palace were well organised and we don’t have the guile to break teams down with the current best X1
Roberto – not very good
Masuako/Cresswell – are not very good at defending
Ogbonna – hit and miss
Noble – too slow – too many free kicks and bookings
Four Nails (or is it Four Snails?) – 25 Mills worth he ain’t
Willshire – is the Andy Carroll replacement.
Anywhere between 10th and 14th is more realistic this season
Here here!
With so many players giving less than 100 per cent, we will be in the bottom 3 by Xmas,
I really cannot see where the next 3pts are coming from.
Bit disappointing today. If some had their expectations raised by a couple of good results early season, then the last 2 performances have shown them where we really stand – and that’s as a mid-table team with a fairly thin squad in terms of options and quality for the Premiership. I don’t agree with some comments today that the team weren’t trying, but I am concerned that we didn’t appear to have a game plan when we did win possession. Or if we did have one, we just couldn’t execute it. One-touch football is great when it comes off, as our goal against Palace shows (one of the best I’ve seen us create in recent years), but we lose the ball or get bounced off it too regularly without threatening the opposition, as we saw again today.
Arsene Wenger suffered from trying to fill his squad with tricky little midfielders in the post-Invincibles era and it wasn’t consistently successful in the high octane Premiership. He missed his world-class defence and world-class defensive midfield duo of Viera and Petit. I think MP has a similar mindset but with less to work with. The signing of Fornals in the summer instead of a hard-running, combative midfielder caused many of us concern. We never replaced Kouyate who at his best gave us more energy, height and strength. In the space between Haller and Rice we looked a bit lightweight and small today. I personally thought Rice did OK in the main but he got overwhelmed, especially after Noble went off. And unless he was carrying a knock, I don’t see why Anderson came off – we seem to be more threatening with Yarmalenko and Anderson on the flanks.
We should also give credit to a good Everton performance who are starting to at least look like the sum of their very expensive parts. We certainly don’t have the luxury of starting a £40 million signing like Sigurdsson on the bench!
One final point that’s been bugging me for months. Why do we invariably lose possession from our throw-ins? We always seen under pressure whenever and wherever it occurs. Any thoughts?
Oh well, Sheffield Utd next week … if anyone thinks that’s a given 3 points, I’d be surprised! Still, COYI.
Too many flair players in there, not enough grunt. Having Lanzini, Anderson & Fornals makes for a slick midfield but not a strong one. Maybe Snoddy would have been a better option than Fornals.
Always felt we were just papering over the cracks even when winning this season.Problems in midfield and defence.Poor Haller isolated up top.Anderson,Fornals and lanzini are non existent.Masuaku is a nightmare and its no coincidence the troubles have appeared since Fabianski got injured as he is head and shoulders above what we have in the goalkeeping dept.Hands in pockets again for Sully come January,and 3 or 4 to go.
OMG there is no cohesion in midfield . Captain Noble is getting slower and giving away the ball and free kicks like Xmas gifts . Is there a worse midfield in the league . NO is the answer . Where will the next goal come from ? No creativity or guile ,. Absolutely awful .
Sorry but Everton did not put in a great performance it’s that we were so bad they looked good. We helped them look good !
Everyone was singing the praises of noble and rice recently and rice looked particularly out of it. He looked bewildered at times. It’s here still sick with a virus
On another note, if it hadn’t been for our keeper it would have been 4 or 5-0