Blind Hammer argues that Pellegrini must make West Ham harder to beat.
The Pellegrini revolution aims to transform West Ham’s style. He has pledged to return attacking flair. This was always going to be a tough gig in a first 4 fixtures which included away games against Liverpool and Arsenal. The reverses in the theoretical winnable games against Bournemouth and Wolves reminds us of how difficult delivering this will be against all teams in the brutal and harsh competitive environment of the Premier League. There really are no easy games. The reality is that despite his huge experience and successful CV Pellegrini is facing a combination of circumstances he has never faced before.
Recently in his London Standard column Mark Noble reflected how extraordinarily difficult the premier league is compared to other European Leagues. He reported how Ogbonna had revealed that the physical demands of playing in the PL bore no resemblance to playing in Italy. There He would have no difficulty playing game after game with little if any physical strain. Whereas in the PL Noble claimed a player will in contrast find it difficult to walk for 48 hours whilst they struggle to recover.
This is one reason why Pellegrini’s experience at Malaga, much cited as a template for West Ham, will in reality have little relevance. There is though another more important reason why the Malaga template may not apply. When I reviewed European turnover figures last year I showed Bournemouth as the minnows of the PL with a turnover of only £96 million, yet this was vast in European terms. They had more financial muscle than nearly all but the most elite of European Clubs. They far outstripped for example Ajax. More relevantly Bournemouth’s relatively small PL turnover massively surpassed nearly all Spanish clubs. Characteristically Spanish clubs had only a fraction of this financial clout, typically earning a turnover of between £10-£20 million.
The Spanish League apart from the giants of Real and Barca is tiny compared to the PL. This meant that the investment Pellegrini received at Malaga was massive compared to nearly all his competitors. In general the competition was much weaker and less resourced. In distinction the best players in the world are sprinkled across the Premier League, drawn in by the lure of the wages paid out by even the smallest PL clubs. . At West Ham we arguably have Austria’s best player in Armi and Mexico’s best player in Chico. We sold the Captain of the Senegal team as he was not considered good enough. Portugal’s Mario struggled to convince at West Ham despite featuring in the latter stages of the World Cup. Newcastle have Venezuela’s best player, Salomon Rondon, who is failing to regularly make their first 11. Everton have Iceland’s best player Gylfi Sigurðsson, other examples are spread throughout the rest of the league.
This in no way resembles the competitive challenge Pellegrini faced with the ultimately failed project at Malaga. West Ham does not resemble Manchester City or Real Madrid either. Pellegrini delivered at City and Real with a massive transfer advantage. The transfer investment whilst at record levels for West Ham is matched and exceeded by many other clubs. The competitive challenge of the PL is more brutal harsh and consistent from week to week. Both Aston Villa and Sunderland fell into their dizzying fall from grace not because of lack of investment but because they faltered at the false altar of “ambition”. Aston Villa were relegated paying more in wages than West Ham whilst Sunderland also struggle because they over invested in player wages but received little back in performance.
None of this means that Pellegrini is necessarily doomed to walk the haunted path of the ghost of Avram grant, at least not yet. It does mean though that the tried and tested strategies of previous appointments may not work. He needs to learn and adapt fast. He may have to adjust and move into unfamiliar territory.
The problem is that West Ham cannot really claim that we have been unlucky. Despite flickering briefly against Arsenal we are terrifyingly open at the moment. Clubs are finding it far too easy to mount efforts on our goal. Only the form of Fabianski has saved us from more humiliating defeats. We continue not only to have the worst defensive record since the start of last season but this season are the second worst team in the Premier League for allowing completed attempts on our goal. Apart from shredding all our nerves this openness and vulnerability will over a season deliver certain relegation. In 4 games played, West Ham has allowed 29 efforts on our goal. This must be controlled to more manageable levels.
I am not sure whether midfield consolidation is needed or whether Pellegrini will finally have to revert back to a back 3, but a system has to be found which does not allow shots and headers to constantly rain down on Fabianski. In other words Pellegrini may need to show tactical flexibility. The hunt for a sweeping Attacking styles may have to go, in the short term, on the back burner in order to claim more substantial, if less exciting improvement. This will be necessary to prevent the collapse of squad confidence and morale. .
So far Pellegrini has shown more interest in shuffling personnel rather than systems in AN effort to bail out the sinking ship. Some change is understandable given poor results. However if the problem is really one of players gelling, not treating each other like strangers, then chopping and changing will not help. As a policy squad rotation should cease immediately. I was amazed at the numbers of changes made for the Wimbledon game. Although we ultimately scrapped through against 10 men with late goals, we should have, in the interest of “gelling” gone with our first 11. A similar principle should apply for the Macclesfield game. This team must stop behaving like strangers and should play together as much as possible at all competitive opportunities. The League Cup may ironically finally provide the green shoots of recovery which helps us in the Premiership.
COYI
David Griffith
David Griffith