Stop passing the ball to death Irons

It’s been clear for weeks, even when we were winning, that the Hammers need to be much sharper over the ground and in front of goal.

Today against Palace it was all far to evident again.

We all love the Pelegrini way but to reach the level that he demands of his teams is clearly going to take a bit more time as the players learn that they really do need to be far more incisive, pacey and creative.

There’s a big difference between playing a passing game and passing the ball to death – we were still doing it at the end when the game needed saving.

Yes we have waited many moons to see a Hammers team flicking it around man to man on the ground but there’s a way to go  far as I can see.

Sideways and backward movement is all well and good but when you have invested much in the the likes of Lanzini, Anderson and Yarmolenko  with Fornals and Wilshere it’s fair to expect more than we saw today.

So to hear the boss complaining about a Rice penalty decision – debatable though it may have been – when there was other stuff which needed closer examination was surprising.

The one moment that we saw Haller at his best for the goal was when the ball was moved at real pace and it’s that level of performance we have to reach throughout games over 90 minutes.

Today wasn’t a disaster but it’s probably fair to say we are somewhere off the finished article.

COYI