Tinkerman Pelle gets it so wrong as Irons collapse

By Hugh Southon

Manuel Pellegrini is going to have to take almost total responsibility for a defeat which sees the Hammers plunge into the bottom half of the table for the first time in weeks.

After both Watford and Wolves were beaten this afternoon the chances looked good for the Hammers to rise into seventh place – we bottled it and now lie 11th.

Pellegrini is reputed to be  an attacking coach but today saw his team create one shot on goal in 90 minutes after selecting a starting X1 which turned out to be what it looked – a mess.

Arnautovic – a lifeless figure

How he came to select Lucas Perez as a partner to the lifeless Marko Arnautovic is a mystery best forgotten but the mistake was admitted at the interval when he was taken off.

On came Chicharito – last week’s two goal hero unbelievably left out of the team this afternoon. It made absolutely no sense.

He was joined by Michail Antonio who spent the second 45 minutes running into positions where he didn’t appear to know what he was doing himself.

At the back we had Zaba and Cresswell playing nearer the halfway line which allowed Everton’s wide players to move into acres of space behind them.

And quite why Balbuena – now fully fit  – spent 90 minutes on the bench with his replacement during injury Ogbonna being beaten with boring regularity is inconceivable.

The whole game plan was a nonsense and after going two down there was no way back for a team which made far too many meaningless passes and lost possession in seriously dangerous places.

Yes it was a shocking performance  from the team with the notable exceptions Fabianski and Rice but the bottom line is that the Tinkerman boss got it all wildly wrong.