West Ham’s lack of concentration fails them again and in familiar way

West Ham has once again lost its concentration in a match and has failed to finish and win the match. With Leicester just a day away, the issue is growing.

The Hammers are trending but in the wrong direction and seemingly, it’s mainly on them. The staff, the players, then entire West Ham organization all have some type of blame in this but the biggest and issue currently is the lack of concentration and finishing the match.

This time of year can make or break and sometimes for the non-top 6 clubs, a time to take advantage of the bigger sides and move up the table. However, West Ham is not doing that. They are however doing the complete opposite.

The Hammers have now dropped 15 points from a winning position and currently sit in 17th just one spot above the relegation zone and on Boxing Day, they dropped the lead again. So much for next level let alone top 10 and if this side doesn’t change soon they will be looking at a long spring.

After the 2-1 Crystal Palace loss, Manuel Pellegrini spoke to the media. He was asked why has his team found it so difficult to manage and close out games after taking the lead? His response? Weak and uncaring in the opinion of many.

"“Playing away, winning 1-0, I think we deserved a better result, but you must be concentrated in your defending until the last-minute.”"

He is correct about one thing however as his team did once again lack the concentration needed to pull off the win. After Robert Snodgrass put in a beautiful curling shot about 10 minutes into the second half but the Hammers did the usual and let the opposition come back.

Crystal Palace responded and the rest was history as former Hammer Cheikhou Kouyate and the Hammers killer from last time Jordan Ayew sliced and diced through the likes of Aaron Cresswell, Angelo Ogbonna, and Fabian Balbuena and there was nothing Roberto could honestly do.

This is the second time this happened in this season by the hands of Crystal Palace in very similar fashioning meaning one thing. The Eagles staff and players prepared for this and knew that if they could just keep it close they could pull it off, again.

More importantly what this means it that Pellegrini has been very predictable and obviously unconditioned to playing to keep the win. This leads to more pressing issues, obviously, but for now, this one is a game-changer that has plagued the Hammers all year.