Some West Ham fans have absolutely slated Manuel Pellegrini’s decision to take Pablo Fornals off against Crystal Palace on Boxing Day.
The Chilean brought Manuel Lanzini on in place of the 23-year-old summer signing after just 59 minutes.
The Hammers had just taken the lead through a Robert Snodgrass strike. It is widely considered that the Scot was the one who Pellegrini was originally going to bring off. But after the 32-year-old scored, the West Ham boss chose to substitute Fornals instead.
And the decision was a baffling one. Fornals was working his socks off and provided much needed defensive cover for Aaron Cresswell.
When the £24 million man was taken off, the Hammers lost all of their defensive solidarity and structure down the left hand side. And they eventually lost the game against Palace 2-1.
Fornals has been really impressive in recent games. And he would have been gutted to have been taken off so early in the match at Selhurst Park.
And some West Ham fans could not believe that Pellegrini took the talented Spaniard off against the Eagles…
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