Paul Merson has slammed West Ham for their lack of consistency, suggesting that Manuel Pellegrini must be pulling his hair out over his players.
The Hammers ended a run of three straight defeats with a 1-1 draw against Liverpool on Monday night, and find themselves 12th in the table.
Speaking on Soccer Saturday (Sky Sports News, Saturday February 9th, 12pm), Merson said: “It would be a nightmare to manage this team, an absolute nightmare.
“Get beat off Wimbledon, get hit for three against Wolves, and then come away from one of the top teams who have only lost one game all season and they were unlucky not to win the game.
“If you’re the manager of that team you must be pulling your hair out saying ‘what can I do?’. You’d be better off saying to the players when you get there ‘I’ll sit on the bench, go and sit it out between yourselves, I’ll go and have a coffee’.
“It’s embarrassing sometimes. They’re a top eight, top nine team. They shouldn’t be where they are.”
OPINION
West Ham are a riddle, They have all the ingredients need to really push on and become a European challenger in the Premier League, but they continue to underwhelm. They are more than capable of taking on the big sides, as has been proven with big wins over Manchester United, Arsenal, and that draw against Liverpool, but they lack any kind of consistency, and fans must be infuriated with what they are seeing. As far as Pellegrini is concerned, they would struggle to find a better manager, and he deserves all the time and patience that the board can muster for him, but at the moment, his players are not performing of him and you have to ask why. Evidently, it’s some kind of attitude problem, and that has to change quickly if they are to end this run of unpredictability. Supporters would rather see their club roll over every team beneath them than pull out the heroics against the big boys if it meant that they could actually put together some kind of decent run.