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Pellegrini's Rice Pudding As He Seeks To Solve Midfield Stodge

nevillenixon's picture
Submitted by nevillenixon on Thu, 13/09/2018 - 21:25

Manuel Pellegrini snuck under the radar, returning from his trip to Chile far earlier than had previously been scheduled, the ex Real Madrid and Manchester City manager spent most of this week working with those players who were not on international duty, one of those players was Declan Rice. Having been the subject of a bit of a tug of war between England and the republic of Ireland for his services as a full international Rice was able to concentrate on learning the role Pellegrini has envisaged for him, and that is as a central midfield destoyer/enforcer.

By utilising Rice's physical presence and his game intelligence Pellegrini will be able to take the shackles off Jack Wilshere and enable the 26 year old to do what he does best, runnng at defenders utilising his low centre of gravity, he was never cut out to be a defensive midfielder! Pellegrin's one to one sessions with Rice are akin to the way his successor at Manchster City Pep Guadiaola works with his 'protégés', Pellegrini has clearly identified that Rice is the way forward and definitley a captain of the club in the future.

Reshaping the midfield however does not really leave space for Mark Noble, who despite returning to fitness will probably have to contend with a place on the bench for the game against Everton, if only his legs could now do what his heart and his head would like them to. Alas time moves on and the fast relentless pace of the Barclays Premier League is unforgiving and gives scant respect to what a player has done in the past, Mark Noble by his own admission is not the player he once was, his 'halceyon' year was when Dimitri Payet joined the club, suddenly Noble was able to be a great player working in tandem with a true genius, and for a brief while everything was beautiful until the bubbles burst and just his dreams they faded and died.

Pushing Wilshere 'up front' to work in tandem with the isolated talismanic Marko Arnotovic and free spirit Felipe Anderson could transform Hammers fortunes, Pellegrini is not going to change his approach to the way he sets his team out, he will definitely utilise the not inconsiderable resources he as at his disposal in whichever way he sees fit, irrespective of player's ego's, he might be 'this gentle man', but his bite is much worse than his bark!

Although deprived of being able to work with Marko Arnoutovic, Yarmolenko and Chicharito because of their respective international duties, Manuel Pellegrin has been able to work with the rest of the squad intensively, and after all the attack mght need some tweeking, but it is the defence and midfield that has been woeful thus far in the season.

Next up is the away fixture against Everton, the Mersey side club are doing their best to 'impersonate' Hammers injury and suspension laden record of last season, but even with all their problems they will still prove to be immensely difficult to get even a point against.

In a way Pellegrini is in between a rock and a hard place, but he is also between the chance to make amends and the choice to walk so early in his managerial tenure, it is time for the Big Man to step up, everyone knows it is in his locker, it just needs someone to find the bleedin' key! - Ed

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I've been asking for weeks why we're not building the team around our brightest 'British' prospect. Wherever he plays he's solid and young enough to track back if required. I like the way yer thinking Nev COYI

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Everything surrounding the bloke is baffling...gawd help us on sunday

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68 users have voted.

I can't help thinking "what if Carroll wasn't acting the Magot with this bullshit that See's him out for the first half of past seasons ," at his best he's impossible to defend against ,he could have been one of the greats ,what a joke of a situation for any club to sustain

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Burkie 1

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