Manuel Pellegrini: West Ham United’s 17th manager

[Georgee Paris]

Arnie, Yarmolenko, lanzini, balbuena, Noble, fabianski, zabaleta would have largely been in our first team so last nights really wasn’t our best side.

[Colours never run]

He really did f*** up big time on some selections last night. I expect much better for him and he got this badly wrong.

Now it's time for us to knuckle down and attack the next 10 games or so in the League to solidify the way we play which in the main is good it just needs tweaking in attack and defence, ready for the business end of the season and hopefully an FA Cup run. Still plenty of reasons to be optimistic by the way we try to play now which encourages me, just frustrating we have to endure the initial phase for him to suss out what's truly bad and what is good. Slowly but surely we are getting there but last night wasn't good enough.

[westham,eggyandchips]

MP will be fine. We’ve had some unlucky results.

My worry is how much are the board going to chuck at the team.

With our injuries mounting up, it needs to be at least half of what they spent in the summer.

[btajim - mcfc]

I like the man. I always have and always will. His Villarreal and Malaga teams were exceptional. He's also managed Real Madrid and Premier League champions.

He'll need time to get his ideas across. Top half is an achievable finish this season. Call it instinct, but I believe things will pick up.

[The Old Man of Storr]

I like the man. I always have and always will. His Villarreal and Malaga teams were exceptional. He's also managed Real Madrid and Premier League champions.

He'll need time to get his ideas across. Top half is an achievable finish this season. Call it instinct, but I believe things will pick up.

Thanks for that , Jim -

Pellegrini has got us playing some neat football even when under pressure , it will all come together when we have the likes of Lanzini , Yarmolenko and Wilshere back . I'm also interested in seeing whether the return of Winston Reid will improve us even further or if the Balbuena / Diop pairing is indeed our best centre halves .

[Patito]

I make you right, Jim.

[smuts]

I like the man. I always have and always will. His Villarreal and Malaga teams were exceptional. He's also managed Real Madrid and Premier League champions.

He'll need time to get his ideas across. Top half is an achievable finish this season. Call it instinct, but I believe things will pick up.

Feel sorry for the bloke. He's being hamstrung by our ever present massive injury list and a second XI who pretty much don't cut it at this level anymore.

[hammerman11]

needs to sort Anderson out by firstly telling him to put the effort in.
he is being hampered by injuries and noble`s stupid red card.

needs to not tolerate lack of effort.

city have great skilful players but they all put a shift in and track back. if its good enough for de bryne, silva, sterling and co then its the standard that Anderson, Hernandez, Antonio etc should be at.

lack of effort is not acceptable these days.

I like the way MP has been playing the young players like rice diop and grady

[Johnny_C WHU]

I think we have actually come a long way since he has been here. Last night was a stark reminder of the poor shower we was over the last few seasons and unsurprisingly the players already mentioned for being poor last night were considered first team.

It will take a couple of windows for Pell Boy to clear out the deadwood and bring in his own players. He has now had a chance to evaluate the likes of Antonio and Chica and make a decision.

The signings he has made have largely been decent, couple brilliant and a couple with question marks however, I think the likes of Anderson and Fredericks will come good.

We are playing decent football, not hoofing it forward and that is with a back 4!

I honestly think that Pellegrini is the best appointment we have made in a very, very long time and hopefully he will raise the profile of the club enough so that when he hands it over we will be a desirable club for a top talented manager.

[peter49uk]

He's being let down by players but at the same time he's allowing them players to do so. I know he took Anderson off last night but really it shouldn't get to that stage.Will it teach Anderson a lesson. Like the norm Its Pellers that will pay the price. Question for those that attend the games, does he ever get animated or talk with players during the game to try and get them to change and do what he wants them to do.

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Personally think he made the substitutions he did with Saturday in mind.
He may not have been planning to take Anderson off at half time, but the fact that him, Hernandez, Arnie, Obiang and Snodgrass did not play full games leads me to believe they will all start on Saturday

i could be completely wrong though

[Marky]

He knew when we were signing Anderson at that price that he was his putting his neck on the line. He cost over £40m.....that’s mega money for us. He might come good and personally I don’t think he is that bad but £42m!

No manager outside the Top 6 can get a signing wrong at that price

[BondsoBob]

I still back him and think he's the man for the job. But it has all gone a bit wrong again (for whatever reason) hasn't it ?

[Patito]

Has it?

I think he's only just getting going.

[englebert]

He deserves some credit for Diangana's development. it takes guts for a manager to reward a youngsters enthusiasm. Big Sam or Moyes wouldnt have done it. They would have picked Antonio or Perez

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Personally think he made the substitutions he did with Saturday in mind.
He may not have been planning to take Anderson off at half time, but the fact that him, Hernandez, Arnie, Obiang and Snodgrass did not play full games leads me to believe they will all start on Saturday

i could be completely wrong though

His post-match comments regarding Anderson and his substitution support this

[Cuenca 'ammer]

Crouchy

are you saying then that he threw the towel in at h-t with Anderson then ? and the other subs too ? looked to me that Arnie still isn't 100% and he brought him on to try to get something out of the game. is the PL the priority over the cup then ?

just asking - I could not care less either way, but loads on here would rather we did worse in the PL and won a cup.

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Apparently he said this after the game...

"I didn't want Felipe to play more than 45 minutes, we need him to play on Saturday also so before the game today I decided he was only going to play for 45 minutes.

Robert got the other 45 minutes"

It wouldn't surprise me if he also thought about similar pre-planned 'time-sharing' with Hernandez and Arnie, and also pre-planned to bring Obiang off

Of course, I have no idea how much pre-planning went into it, but I do believe the substitutions were made with one eye on Saturday's game

[Cuenca 'ammer]

cheers Crouchy, hadn't seen that..

interesting...wonder if he'll get remonstrated with putting the PL over the cup..

think Pinky did say that word might come down from "above" about where his priorities might lie...

[Colours never run]

Either way he still ****ed up, so it doesn't really matter. I still love the old goat anyway. As much as Spurs went away with a smash and grab victory due to our shocking defending when it mattered, we still looked like a Team trying to play the right way and to win. The style is definitely coming on but the thing that has pleasantly surprised me in recent weeks (not the cup game), is how well drilled he's coaching the defence into trying to play the offside trap. I can see real signs of it working well and the defence tightening up when we've got the better players available to play it successfully. I really wasn't expecting much defensively with his attacking reputation and hope we keep going in the right direction defending smartly as a team and attacking with purpose.