With four matches without a win, West Ham are in a rut under Manuel Pellegrini. Prior to now excuses were plenty, but now he has to answer for his curious use of subs.
Case in point for the criticism falling on Manuel Pellegrini for his substitutions was the Sheffield United match. West Ham were up 1-0 and were statistically dominating the match. Pellegrini opted to remove Felipe Anderson in the 66th minute for Manuel Lanzini and three minutes later, Sheffield tied the game up and the Hammers would never get their noses back in front.
Mark Noble would get subbed off for Pablo Fornals in the 78th minute, and this sub makes a bit more sense. The Hammers wanted to push for a win and taking a defensive-minded player out for an attacker helps with that. That being said, the draw was invited on by the Lanzini sub.
Lastly, with the ball in his hands approaching the corner flag for a late 86th-minute set-piece, Robert Snodgrass is inexplicably removed for Albian Ajeti. The corner goes wasted and the match shrivels up as a wasted opportunity at three points. A draw is a draw, but this delt likes a loss.
These issues run deeper than just this last match, with Anderson being removed instead of the invisible Lanzini against Everton. But, why are they happening? Clearly Pellegrini wants to get his fringe players time on the Premier League pitch like Lanzini, Fornals, and Ajeti, but is 20 minutes or less enough time for subs to truely impact a game?
Also, the manager seems set on getting Lanzini and Fornals comfortable playing out wide – it has not been a successful journey thus far. Both players are tricky with the ball at their feet and can create space with quick turns and bursts of pace. But, their specialty is passing and creating which is why playing them with their backs to the sideline has hurt the team so much. Lanzini needs to be played centrally and if Fornals was purchased to be a wide player it really is a strike against Pellegrini and Husillos who mismanaged funds for the incorrect player.
Realistically, these issues weren’t brought under the microscope when the team was playing well. With the team struggling to score goals and see out leads, however, subs appear to be wasted when they aren’t tactical or appropriate. Pellegrini is slowly starting to lose his luster to a lot of supporters and his use of subs is a large contributing factor.