Manuel Pellegrini: West Ham United’s 17th manager

[Tenbury]

So do I. This is a West Ham I'm familiar with. (And I love it).

[sutts07]

We have spent £100m and are 2 points above Cardiff and we haven’t scored in last 2 games.....
3 Hone losses out of 5...
Come on everyone that’s poor.

We were superb against Man Utd, we had the better chances against Chelsea and should have won, we had the better chances against both Wolves and Spurs and should not have lost / could have won and we even played quite well in the first half against Bournemouth (all be it terrible in the second half).

Away from home we also had the better of the Brighton game, were well on top of Arsenal for the first half hour (plus still very much in the game for an hour) and we were superb up at Everton.

In the games where we have taken our chances (Man Utd and Everton basically) we have been superb. The style of play is much better than in recent years and we are more solid at the back.

We just need to a) take our chances and b) stop gifting soft goals (Spurs, Brighton and Wolves were all given their goals in my opinion).

All 'ifs' and 'buts' at this stage, not gifting those three goals, and taking one of our chances against Chelsea would see us sitting with another five points up in 11th.

We have a run of great looking fixtures now and I fully expect us to be in the top 12 come the new year, maybe even the top ten.

[Cuenca 'ammer]

Wait until the suspensions kick in mate.

Saw a caption that we have to most yellow cards in the division - could be wrong but that's what I thought I saw. I think that the individual errors and yellow cards add up to a slightly ill disciplined team at times. Opponents must love playing us at times - all they have to do is sit (well teams equal to us that is) and wait for a yellow card and the team gets a bit unsettled. Individual errors are costing points, not just goals.

And if I were the opposing manager I'd tell my lot (again the teams similar to us) mark Arnie tight (easier said than done I know), and just wait. If we score that's it. They've scored 8 goals in 9 games, 3 each against ManU and Everton and one of the other 2 was a penalty.

Job done.

[BondsoBob]

Here we go again. A couple of defeats, that could easily have been wins, and the knives are out for Pellers again. I expect IB will be on soon saying we wouldn't possibly have lost those games with Moyes in charge. :lol:
He is the right man for the job.

[Cuenca 'ammer]

bob

not referring to me I hope ?

[BondsoBob]

bob

not referring to me I hope ?

No mate. There is only one IB , David Moyes, sorry I mean Ironing Board.

[Cuenca 'ammer]

has the "would 100M been better given to Moyes" thread then disappeared ?

[Colours never run]

We have spent £100m and are 2 points above Cardiff and we haven’t scored in last 2 games.....
3 Hone losses out of 5...
Come on everyone that’s poor.

And in that time since he's only just arrived at our Club we've had to play Liverpool, Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Everton, Spurs.

Not sure what some people were expecting from the very beginning with that kind of fixture list, with everything else going on at the Club that he has had to get to grips with ie The controversial Stadium.

The one thing I am very encouraged about even at this early stage, is the intention to play decent football again and we've seen plenty of that already. Imagine what we'd actually be like if given plenty of time to implement his ideas and players further, the longer he's our manager.

[Kialos]

What I like about him other than his wonderful hair is he does not appear to take any nonsense. If you don't perform you are out.

[stu1]

I’ve mentioned this on a couple threads but we are still yet to play any team below 12th. Unfortunately for us the ‘easy’ games we’ve played so far against Wolves and Bournemouth were against teams who started the season very well, having only lost 2 games each so far. Brighton are the exception, but they do have an impressive home record and we were unlucky to lose that game.

In the 9 games after Leicester we are playing every single team in the current bottom 8. Whilst our performances in the last 5 games certainly give cause for optimism (a huge difference from our opening 4).

For some context, the only other team to have fixtures anywhere near as difficult as ours are Newcastle and look how their doing right now!

[Ironing Board]

No mate. There is only one IB , David Moyes, sorry I mean Ironing Board.

There’s only one IB!
There’s only one IB!



:lol:

[Tenbury]

There’s only one IB!



:lol:

At last!......Something positive.

[Colours never run]

I’ve mentioned this on a couple threads but we are still yet to play any team below 12th. Unfortunately for us the ‘easy’ games we’ve played so far against Wolves and Bournemouth were against teams who started the season very well, having only lost 2 games each so far. Brighton are the exception, but they do have an impressive home record and we were unlucky to lose that game.

In the 9 games after Leicester we are playing every single team in the current bottom 8. Whilst our performances in the last 5 games certainly give cause for optimism (a huge difference from our opening 4).

For some context, the only other team to have fixtures anywhere near as difficult as ours are Newcastle and look how their doing right now!

That's all very true and to put it into even greater context, the next extremely tricky block of fixtures left in the season doesn't come until April. February is half and half but in the main apart from those periods, the fixture list is at long last kinder to us from here on in compared to the hellish start we've had to endure (Cup run/s permitting). The problem now though, is managing as best we can without the living dead currently holed up in our morgue/physio room.

[Ironing Board]

At last!......Something positive.

I feel so strange!

[szola]

We've been on our best run, defensively, since Oct-Jan '15/'16.
We're organised and difficult to score against, while playing decent football going forward.

In the richest league out there, we are without players who are nailed on Champions League material. Arnautovic, our best player, isn't a 20 goals per season striker, Anderson isn't a 20 assists per season player, and we don't have any players in any positions that are scouted by the best.

We are playing, mostly, well. Sometimes we win, sometimes we don't.
We are at our level. Let us see where we are at the end of April.

[S-H]

I feel so strange!

You're Scottish, ginger, and look like Gollum.. What do you expect?

[Patito]

[BrownFatwa]

So, are posters saying he should be judged on the games against the bottom half teams? I hope not because in many respects they are just as difficult to pick up points from and our Achilles heel is getting picked off too easily when we have the onus to attack. And unlike any of the top 6 we have no chance of trading a goals fest i.e. you score 1 we'll score 2 etc.
Ironically the biggest improvement under Pellers thus far in factual not visual terms has been a tightening in defence.

FWIW I'm happy enough with Pellers simply because we are at least trying to play the game even when we lose. But in all honesty I think we'd have had the same if not more points under Moyes at this stage, but with a more functional (i.e. boring) approach.

At best without £100m a season budget for 3-5 years we'll only be emulating say a Leicester rather than pushing top 6 IMHO.

[Patito]

So, are posters saying he should be judged on the games against the bottom half teams?

No, just judged after a couple more windows.

[sutts07]

So, are posters saying he should be judged on the games against the bottom half teams?

Nope, he should be judged on games against the likes of Chelsea and Man Utd...