The roof falls in on Pellegrini and West Ham after 3-2 loss

West Ham lost at home 3-2 to Newcastle United. While this should be enough to infuriate any Hammers fan, the scoreline flatters the completely flat team Manuel Pellegrini put forward.

West Ham had a prime opportunity to rewrite their last months’ worth of fixtures that had forced the team down the table into the bottom half. Instead, Manuel Pellegrini kept an unchanged team from the 1-1 home draw with Sheffield United that struggled to break down the Blades’ 3 or 5 at the back formation that Steve Bruce uses at Newcastle.

What followed was the worst half of football that the Hammers have played under Manuel Pellegrini. The opening goal saw an unjustly won free kick on the edge of the box get sent back across the face of the goal for Ciaran Clarke to head home past Aaron Cresswell and Roberto in the 16th minute.

The stunned Hammers locked up and completely fell apart on another set-piece just six minutes later with another center-back, Federico Fernandez, to freely head into the top of the net. Twenty-two minutes in and the Hammers were down 2-0 to the relegation scrapping Toons of Newcastle, and they weren’t close to matching their speed or intensity.

The first half ended with Newcastle up 2-0 however this should have been at the very least 4-0 if Roberto didn’t come up with two massive saves on a pair of Allan Saint-Maximin breakaways. Awful midfield play from Declan Rice and Mark Noble was matched by Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena who couldn’t battle the Frenchman’s pace down the middle of the pitch.

To start the second half Pellegrini took off Andriy Yarmolenko and Mark Noble for Albian Ajeti and Manuel Lanzini to push for goals in a 4-4-2 formation. With the ball now to be played in the air, Sebastien Haller was destined to get into the action more so. Instead, a bad foul was given away and “not good enough for West Ham” Jonjo Shelvey placed a thirty-yard free-kick into the bottom corner of the net. 3-0 to the Toons in the 51st minute.

The Hammers would take over the match restricting Newcastle to sparing counter-attacks to close of the game. As bad as West Ham were on set pieces, Newcastle matched. Once the Hammers pushed the pressure corner kicks started coming and in the 73rd minute, Felipe Anderson‘s front post corner would get nodded on goal by Haller and deflected to Balbuena who bundled it in.

With the pressure on and the clock running out, half-time substitute Manuel Lanzini dropped a lovely cross to Robert Snodgrass on the edge of the box who hit it on the volley to drag the Hammers back within one goal in the 90th minute. Five minutes of extra time would expire and the game would end 3-2 to Newcastle. The scoreline flattered Pellegrini’s men in this one greatly.

If there ever was a breaking point for the fans and their patience towards Manuel Pellegrini this was it. The team selection was uninspired, the players are not motivated, the opposition seemingly was not scouted, and the team was picked apart in the same areas they have been for years. Progression has stopped for the Hammers and this match stamps the need for drastic change.