Despite West Ham’s huge summer of spending, Michail Antonio started West Ham’s first league game of the season, Robert Snodgrass came off the bench and Pedro Obiang was among the unused replacements.
That’s three players who looked set for a more bit-part role who may be set to be handed an opportunity to impress and force their way into Manuel Pellegrini’s new-look side.
Reintegrating players who may well have been prepared for the exit door represents a test of Pellegrini’s man-management skills.
The summer influx and Pellegrini’s continued desire to bring the likes of Yacine Brahimi and Andre-Frank Anguissa to the club in the positions that Snodgrass, Antonio and Obiang play is sure to have dented their confidence and made them feel unwanted at the club.
If the trio are set for more integral roles than Pellegrini would ideally have liked because he was unable to land every one of his summer targets, the former Manchester City boss must find a way to get them back onside.
He must also make a path to the first-team clear. Antonio likely only got the nod at Anfield because Andriy Yarmolenko was not quite ready to start, but the Englishman cannot feel like a mere placeholder, or else he will play like one.
Similarly, Pellegrini’s central midfield axis of Declan Rice, Mark Noble and Jack Wilshere lacked a degree of energy and Obiang – who looked set to return to Sampdoria at one point during the summer – could add it.
That will only work if Pellegrini can successfully reintegrate him. His calm demeanour is well-known and often-praised but that must translate into remotivating players who could have become disillusioned over a summer of change.
Dealing with unsettled players while overhauling a squad would add another level of complexity to an already challenging task that Pellegrini doesn’t need at all.
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