West Ham captain Mark Noble questioned Manuel Pellegrini influence again before Arsenal clash

Add as preferred source on Google

West Ham United captain Mark Noble questioned the influence of manager Manuel Pellegrini before Monday night’s defeat to Arsenal.

West Ham were comfortably leading 1-0 for the first 55 minutes at the London Stadium.

But a pathetic surrender saw Arsenal score three goals to subject the Hammers to another defeat.

Pellegrini on the brink?

It means West Ham have won just once in their last 10 games, rather inexplicably away at Chelsea.

Pellegrini’s future is in serious doubt. Fans and pundits have questioned his tactics and team selection for some time.

And ahead of the game, captain Noble implied the Chilean has effectively lost the dressing room.

Speaking in his somewhat controversial column in The Evening Standard, Noble said Pellegrini’s message is simply not getting through to his teammates, who keep making the same mistakes time and again.

Captain suggests boss has lost the dressing room

“That (conceding goals from set-pieces) has been our Achilles heel in recent weeks and it is costing us dearly,” Noble told The Evening Standard.

“I’ve talked about this problem so many times I’m beginning to sound like a broken record.

“I’m struggling to work out exactly why we keep giving away set-piece goals, since we work on them constantly in training.

“I don’t mark anyone at set-plays because others do it better, but for me it’s a bit of pride. It’s a case of, “My man, the player I’m marking, is not going to score”. I would be thinking, “He’s going to have to either foul me or do something really spectacular to get the better of me”.

“At the moment it seems like it’s a toss of a coin which team will turn up.”

Damning words from the skipper. And that was BEFORE the dismal collapse against the worst Arsenal team for generations.

Not the first time Noble has questioned Pellegrini

It is not the first time Noble has aimed a not-so-subtle dig at Pellegrini.

Last month Noble questioned his manager’s tactics and approach in his column while heaping praise on Burnley manager Sean Dyche.

If Pellegrini is failing to get his message across to players then surely West Ham need to act fast.

The manager admitted as much last night when asked on Sky Sports why things went wrong so quickly.

He told Sky that his players had to learn to play for 95 minutes and not 55 minutes.