Pellegrini doesn’t know why Hammers were ‘so bad’ in 3-2 defeat to Newcastle

Manuel Pellegrini admitted he didn’t know why his team had played “so, so bad” in a 3-2 loss for the Hammers against Newcastle at the London Stadium on Saturday.

Ciaran Clark, Federico Fernandez and JonJo Shelvey all scored within the first hour, an hour in which West Ham looked lackadaisical.

Fabian Balbuena and Robert Snodgrass both got on the scoresheet in a late West Ham comeback but ultimately Newcastle took the points.

Commenting on his side’s first half performance Pellegrini said: “It is really difficult to explain why we played the way we did in the first 45 minutes. Today I do not understand why we played so, so bad.”

When questioned on his team’s recent lapse in form, five games without a win he said: “I’m concerned. I think that this lapse started against Oxford when we lost 4-0 in the cup and from that moment, we have not won any more and we need to try and find the reason this is happening.”

Pellegrini defended his goalkeeper stating: “Roberto has a career behind him, with big teams in other countries. I do not think today is about him.”

As well as Roberto his players came under fire and Pellegrini responded by saying: “We needed to change out attacking system so we put Manuel Lanzini behind the two strikers. It was a risk we had to take.”

When asked if he could have substituted any of his players he said: “It’s not about one substitute player, it is about the spirit of the whole team and we must find why we are not playing in the way we did before.”

He concluded by stating that: “The lack of energy is not because they don’t have energy. We need to review what we are doing and what is happening.”

The Hammer’s loss today means the last win they recorded was on the 22nd September when they beat Manchester United 2-0.

Their next game against Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday will be a must win game for the irons with games against Tottenham, Chelsea, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Arsenal to follow in the upcoming weeks.