Manuel Pellegrini fires thinly-veiled warning to West Ham stars one game into new season

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Manuel Pellegrini is cast as a classy, polite, calm and considered manager but he has just this charming man has just bared his teeth.

Even as West Ham slipped to a humbling opening game defeat to Liverpool Pellegrini did not once lose his cool on the sideline.

It is widely accepted that Liverpool will do worse to better teams than West Ham this season.

But there were worrying signs and more questions than answers from the Hammers’ performance.

An apparent lack of fitness and desire alarmed many fans.

Charming man Pellegrini ‘too nice’?

Whether that was down to Liverpool’s vastly superior quality or not will become clearer when Bournemouth visit the London Stadium this weekend.

West Ham have signed well.

But they still don’t have the outstanding quality of many of Pellegrini’s former clubs.

Many fear Pellegrini may be ‘too nice’ to whip the Hammers into shape.

But his comments in an interview with West Ham’s official website one game in has put paid to those concerns.

The Chilean has wasted little time showing his West Ham players who is boss.

He has fired out a thinly-veiled threat that he is not afraid to drop under performing stars.

“Every time that you bring in so many players it is difficult to adapt to a new system but we are just starting the season,” Pellegrini said on whufc.com.

‘Which players are in their best moment’

“We need to continue working hard, analyse this game and think about the next game where we will be better and which players are in their best moment.

“I don’t analyse the individual players. I think that our team, we conceded four goals because we made some mistakes in our defending.”

The key words there were ‘think about the next game where we will be better and which players are in their best moment’.

That translates roughly as ‘if you’re not playing well you won’t play’.

Of course that could apply to most of the team after the Anfield drubbing.

Will it have the desired effect?

But it will be music to the ears of fans who – despite the obvious quality of Jurgen Klopp’s Reds – were massively deflated after the opening weekend.

The Cherries will be no pushovers.

But Pellegrini clearly feels he needs to make a point early on to sharpen a few minds.

West Ham fans will be hoping that is evident come Saturday.