West Ham legend John Moncur believes Manuel Pellegrini has run out of ideas, and has pointed to one of their summer departures as a reason for their poor form.
The Hammers boss is facing increasing pressure over his position after results took a dramatic downturn in recent weeks.
They have failed to win in their any of their last six games, culminating in a 3-0 defeat in their last outing at Burnley which has seen them fall to 16th in the Premier League heading into the international break.
That loss at Turf Moor included a howler from goalkeeper Roberto – deputising for the injured Lukasz Fabianski – as the under-fire stopper punched the ball into his own net to give the Clarets a 2-0 lead.
And former midfielder Moncur believes the Hammers are now paying the price for allowing former keeper Adrian leave the club during the summer.
The Spaniard is now reserve goalkeeper at league leaders Liverpool, and played a pivotal role for the Reds earlier in the season during first-choice stopper Alisson’s time out injured – including the penalty shootout victory over Chelsea in the UEFA Super Cup in August.
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t think we’d be having this conversation a month ago because everything was moving in the right direction,” Moncur told Love Sport Radio.
“I think the whole ground was upbeat, the whole club was upbeat with the way it was going.
“I just think decisions like Adrian, and him not being there in such a pivotal position, has led to the demise in results.
“If you look at the goalkeeper at the moment, he’s a fine shot stopper, but it seems to happen after he’s thrown the game away, and that’s the frustrating part of it.”
Pellegrini has hit out at the questions being asked over his position as manager, saying: “We need to keep a cool head and continue working the way we think we must do it better and after that we will see the results.”
But Moncur believes the Hammers boss has a lot to answer for the club’s poor run of form.
“It all comes back to Pellegrini, and I think just at the moment, he’s run out of ideas a little bit.”
