Newcastle attacking midfielder Jonjo Shelvey has revealed the secret behind the Magpies’ 3-2 win against West Ham at the weekend.
Steve Bruce’s side managed to get in behind the Hammers’ defence repeatedly in the first half, and when asked about the tactics they employed, Shelvey replied it was simply about using runs from deep to exploit the high defensive line:
“The gaffer spoke about it before. They (West Ham) always struggle with runners from deep and we worked on it in training and it paid off.”
A lot of fans on Twitter feel manager Manuel Pellegrini’s tactics are not up to scratch following Shelvey’s remarks:
That is truly damming for Pellegrini.
— Bob Collison (@collison_bob) November 4, 2019
It’s irrelevant that Steve Bruce outsmarted West Ham and won the game as Pellegrini plays the same tactics week in, week out so any manager with half a brain cell could plot how their team can beat West Ham. This is why we are so simple to beat.
— Josh Verrills (@WestHamJoshV) November 4, 2019
Stopping at the halfway line then passing backwards or sideways is not a “style” of football ?
— Mark Fletcher (@mfletch007) November 4, 2019
100%. MP’s teams struggle with late runners to beat a high line…even Bruce saw it and managed to adapt to expose it!
— Peadar MacÍomhair (@bigpete1974) November 4, 2019
But what he says is spot on. How many times under MP do we see goals where midfield runners aren't tracked & given time & space to drive at the CH. it's been clear to see for ages.
— William Field (@wilfield71) November 4, 2019
we get a corner, and allow Zab to be the last man against their fastest player, no player in front to protect him and or to defend against the counter attack, that to me is tactical suicide, and I'm not even a football coach!!!!!!!
— Peter Heritage (@peterheritage11) November 4, 2019
I guess we should be grateful for Shelvey for coming out and saying it, hopefully Pellegrini listens but I doubt it ?
— Stuart Dillon (@StuartDillon1) November 4, 2019
Unfortunately at the moment it has a bit of a similar feel to the final days of bilic. With West Ham once the wheels start to wobble, they normally fall off pretty quick. Will take a massive effort to turn this round now, with a pretty tough set of fixtures coming up
— Nick Dibley ???? ?? ?? ?? (@ga02njd) November 4, 2019
Whether Pellegrini will change his style of play, it is doubtful, but it must be said that not every team will have the pace of players like Allan Saint-Maximin on the counter-attack.
Whatever the circumstances, though, it was an extremely poor performance by the home side and the team now face the challenge of travelling to Turf Moor for a tough test against Burnley in their last game before the international break.