The international break may have come at the perfect time for Manuel Pellegrini. It give him respite after a shocking start to the season and the chance to redouble his efforts to turn West Ham around.
However, the extended break without club football also allows for greater scrutiny. Everyone can pile in and have their say on the current malaise, without a game at the weekend for the Hammers to get back on track.
The latest to have his say is former Millwall striker Tony Cascarino. He told the Times that he sees similarities between Pellegrini and Frank de Boer; who was of course sacked after just four games by Crystal Palace last season.
In his own words
He said: “Last year I said after four games that Frank de Boer had to get the sack at Crystal Palace and I’ve got the same feeling with Manuel Pellegrini at West Ham.
“Given the way they are getting beaten, I cannot see a way out for this team. It was a big risk getting rid of David Moyes and I thought after one game of the season that I had made a mess of my pre-season predictions and should have put them down as one of my teams to go down.
“Some can’t run. Some on Saturday chose not to run. I don’t see this as a short-term problem. The signs were there in the first game against Liverpool. It was alarming. They could have lost by eight.
“I see similarities with QPR when they came up and had a lot of players on big wages who didn’t work as hard as they might have done.”
It is easy to draw parallels between de Boer and Pellegrini on the face of it. Both men lost their first four league games in the job which left their side bottom of the division.
However, de Boer never looked a good fit for Palace. The Eagles are a counter-attacking side and the Dutchman did not have the players to play his possession game. It was also his first job in English football.
Pellegrini is a title-winner and has been backed heavily in the transfer market. His own personal experience and the quality of the squad should be enough to turn things around.
Palace actually showed last season that a poor start need not be terminal; they lost their first seven games but finished 11th. Pellegrini is capable of engineering similar improvements.
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