Pellegrini To Swing The Axe

Manuel Pellegrini looks certain to 'wield the axe' ahead of the london derby against Arsenal at the Emirates this weekend, having seen his team trounced 4-0 by Liverpool on the opening day of the season followed by the lame 2-1 capitulation to Bournemouth at the London Stadium, change is afoot. The 'nice' man will not be so nice in the future, the results will have opened his eyes up to the size of the task ahead of him although he must have had a pretty good idea of what was to come! Loyalty will defintely go out the window now El Pel's 'honeymoon' period is over, he will now have realised that he will have to 'get radical' inorder to sort his side's inherrant problems out, starting with the midfield, quickly followed by the defence, both areas need a complete overhal in order to be fit for purpose, the manager has given everyone enough time, now he needs to be ruthless and swing the axe

Interestingly when Snachez replaced Noble, about twenty minutes too late according to many fans opinions, the midfield suddenly tightened up, and indeed it was Sanchez who nearly scored with a speculative long range shot that was deinitely worth the effort, perhaps a course of action that others should have adopted earlier in the game. With all the 'World Class' players fielded by Pellegrini supporters at least expected something 'exotic', instead the bulk of those wearing claret and blue seemed petrified to take a shot or sprint towards the box, their efforts invariably ending with a sideways pass to the opposition!

This 'diatribe' is not meant to call individual players out, more of that later, it is merely to point out the fact that the new players are playing with fear and are not performing anywhere near the level that they are capable of individually and collectively. The manager has shown faith in many of the players he inherited after taking over from David Moyes, Robert Snodgrass being one of them, now 'Snoddy' has come in for a lot of flack in the past, particularly from this site, however he was probably one of Hammers best performers against Bournemouth and has begun to resemble the player he once was before joining the club.

Unfortunately Snodgrass is an exception with regards to the players that Pellegrini inherited, the rest have hardly covered themselves with glory and must be making his grey hair even greyer as he contemplates how on earth to kick start the season, even if it only two games old! It was assumed that the experienced manager would use a blend of old and new players to create a team that 'gelled', the only problem being that the existing players have not been able to put in performances that give the new players a chance, they are experiencing a baptism of fire that wasn not anticipated.

Ok losing Manuel Lanzini was a catastrophic blow, the loss of a player of his quality would have an adverse effect on any team, creativley he was scheduled to be the main man before injury while training with Argentina so cruelly intervened, also the loss of Winston Reid has had a poor effect, despite picking up an increasing amount of injuries, Reid's presence on the pitch should not be underestimated, he is a 'warrior' and there will be many games where his total commitment will be needed this season, hopefully when he returns to fitness he will be able to play a part in providing a back bone for the team that newer players can align with.

There's no point in mentioning Andy Carroll as he is of course perpetually injured, but even Carroll jumping with one leg would have been better than nothing against Bournemouth! - Ed