Manuel Pellegrini is not only determined to have the Irons playing technical football but EXPECTING it!
That’s the way of thing with the new boss who has adopted a ‘pure football’ philosophy throughout a highly successful career.
And speaking to www. whufc.com ahead of the new season he explained: “Normally with my teams I always try to bring in players that make a technical difference“
“Jack, Felipe and Andriy Yarmolenko are very technical players that give the quality we need to play attractive and offensive football.
“They all have good technique and now this is the chance for Felipe and Andriy, who are coming into the Premier League, to demonstrate why they have this name in football.
“Jack’s a very important player. He has a lot of experience in the Premier League. He has quality and he’s a player that comes from a winning club; one that is used to playing in the Champions League and for the title.
“That mentality is now at West Ham. Each one of us will try to change the mentality and we will need to use during important times.”
The boss is confident that he and his side will be fully prepared for the opening Premier League game of the season, away to Liverpool in a little over two weeks.
He added: “Maybe some players need a little bit more time and also, when you bring so many new players in, you may need some time to find the best starting XI.
“But football doesn’t give you time. We must be ready for the first game.”
I am not expecting much from the first game, hopefully though we can make the LS a Fortress and gradually improve throughout the season, if you gave me 8th now would snap your arm off 🙂
Agreed. I’d be happy to end the season with nothing to play for but pride in the final few fixtures. There’s usually one team adrift of any action around 7th or 8th – you know, 8 points clear of the team below, and 8 points adrift from the position above. Happy with that!
One target I’d like us to have, is to finish the season with a positive goal difference. Last season, only the top 6 teams managed that. One other thing: all this talk about playing attractive, attacking football – Bilic gave us that but we were leaking at the back. Moyes did a half decent job of plugging the leaks but it took away from the front. Pelle needs to give us strength at both ends – so far in pre season we still look poor at the back so I’m hoping Diop and Balbuena will be something special.
I’m not sure we had the players back then to provide a solid defensive base or any kind of continuity, SD. From one week to the next, you didn’t know what combination of Hart, Randolf, Adrian, Zaba, Antonio, Reid, Collins, Oggie, Fonte, Kouyate, Cressie or Masuaku we’d see line up. The quality and depth of squad was not available to either Bilic or Moyes, whereas by buying in some quality this Summer, hopefully we now have that and your target may well be achievable.
Well all the talk sounds good , as per usual . 10 or 12 games into the season should give us a reasonable idea of where we’re headed . I’m more or less as other fans and would be happy with a top eight finish . But let’s not get carried away because there is a lot of work outstanding . Last team to beat Arsenal at Highbury & first team to beat Arsenal at the Emirates . It’s all history after that . Last season could have been a lot lot worse , so let’s thank our lucky stars we have the opportunity to at last do something a bit special . As I say , it all sounds good , so far . A good job done normally depends on good preparation and it looks like Pelegrini ( and the board ) is heading in the right direction .
COYHammers