Will be interesting to see if Pellegrini can mould a squad that is good enough to play with four at the back.
We have two fullbacks on either side, and at the moment we have two seniors and two youngsters, who can play in the heart of the defense (Ogbonna + Kouyate, Rice + Oxford).
Need more strength and mobility in front of these players, if we don't want to conceed a couple of goals per game.
When the West Ham squad will meet Manuel Pellegrini at Rush Green for the first time. :shock:
The players will meet their new manager for the first time along with his coaching staff, who we expect to be assistant Ruben Cousillas, fitness coach Jose Cabello plus a couple of others
Pellegrini and Cabello had the City players training three times a day when he first rocked up at the Etihad to whip them in to shape. West Ham were very unfit under Slaven Bilic, that improved a lot under Moyes but it's still not likely to be enough for Pellegrini and Cabello.
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So far I’ve been impressed with the new guvnor. Training on small pitches with one touch football, which I’ve seen in Spain but never heard of here. His insistence on younger players and giving U23s a chance bodes well for building a long term team at last. I was delighted to see Samuelsen taken to Switzerland with the first team, I watched him several times in PL2 and thought his clever ball skills would make him an exciting prospect. Got farmed out to some kick, run & hack teams and was even berated for taking on players. Loaning out talent to lower clubs is a big beef of mine and the disadvantage of crap coaching easily outweighs the ‘experience’ argument imo. Pellegrini obviously appreciates ball skills and I hope he can get a tune out of Samuelsen and we get a good ‘freebie’ squad midfielder.
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Samuelson does have some very clever skills, but he seems weak with his final ball. I watched the youtube video again earlier of the lad from Montenegro whose name I can never spell. He looked very promising and with plenty of experience already amongst men and not boys - albeit in an inferior league - I'm surprised he hasn't come further. I'll be interested to see if can progress this year. Apart from that though, I share your thoughts - I'm feeling quite optimistic that we'll be watching some good stuff this season.
the celestial insect wrote:Was Pellegrini at Man C the same time as Samuelsen? Might be interesting if so because I'd assume he knows something about his potential.
Burnley Hammer wrote:Samuelson does have some very clever skills, but he seems weak with his final ball. I watched the youtube video again earlier of the lad from Montenegro whose name I can never spell. He looked very promising and with plenty of experience already amongst men and not boys - albeit in an inferior league - I'm surprised he hasn't come further. I'll be interested to see if can progress this year. Apart from that though, I share your thoughts - I'm feeling quite optimistic that we'll be watching some good stuff this season.
I'd wager that the reason Haksabanovic didn't get much time to prove himself is because, as I think an ITK has said somewhere (it was possible ExWHUEmployee, now I think about it), nobody knew who he was until he turned up for training one day on £18k a week. He was part of the Arnie deal, basically a sweetner to the agent for organising that deal as we agreed with him (Salthouse, I think) that we'd take Sead as well. Comes down to Sullivan prefering certain agents and working with them, plus giving them sweetners so they'll work with us again.
Is it me or does there seem to be a lack of pre season training videos etc? Normally our media team are showing "intense" training videos etc this time of the year. Do you think this is something El Pell has stopped, he doesnt want his training sessions being shown. What are your thoughts?
StackerJJ wrote:Is it me or does there seem to be a lack of pre season training videos etc? Normally our media team are showing "intense" training videos etc this time of the year. Do you think this is something El Pell has stopped, he doesnt want his training sessions being shown. What are your thoughts?
when held up at gunpoint recently in chile with his wife, not only did he not **** it, he had a go at the robber (who got a shot off as well!)
...what a geezer he is...
he aint going to be scared to hand out some bollockings in the dressing room
all the man city i know (i live in manc), love the bloke...said it was amazing football, and he won trophies...his record is superb, never finishing below 7th
I read an article saying that now he has his signings he wants the club to invest in the training facilities. currently there is no undersoil heating, the gym cant accommodate the full first team squad and there is no sufficient indoor area..
If he manages to pull of the upgrade and redevelopment of the training ground also he will definitely go down as one our greatest signings in modern times. This has been needed to about 15 years.. All we did was move the facilities haven't been relevant for years.
The lightning quick right back said: “He works hard with us in training, he makes sure we are organised so we need to cut that out this season but he also wants us organised first and foremost about not conceding goals.
“I think it’s common knowledge that we conceded a lot of goals last season so we need to cut that out this year
Wasn't this said about Moyes when he first showed @ UP ? (speaking off which, why doesn't Dave post here any more .... )
:lol:
Proof of the pudding, although to be fair, MP has a few new faces to try this out on....