West Ham United need their two week break after a poor start under Manuel Pellegrini.
The hype and expectation at West Ham United has been curtailed after just four Premier League games – although, honestly, the first match did that.
A 4-0 loss at Anfield on their opening day showed the work needed under Manuel Pellegrini and immediately demonstrated that getting their expensively-assembled squad to work as a unit could take quite a lot of time.
Subsequent defeats to Bournemouth, Arsenal, and Wolverhampton Wanderers leave the Hammers rock-bottom of the table and in desperate need of something positive soon.
It’s easy to want games in that situation – the sooner the better, the quicker its impact, after all – but the two-week international break is exactly what West Ham need right now.
The talk of European qualification and free-flowing attacking football that built those expectations has quickly turned into fears that things are going to go terribly wrong this year.
The important thing now is to stop the panicking, bring about a bit of stability, and go into what is a difficult fixture list with the right expectations; West Ham are a work that is firmly in progress and one that is simply about building a foundation for the next few seasons.
The break will allow Pellegrini to rethink the situation and the plan going forward, let alone giving the players time to breathe without the pressure of game-preparation, and that could be the difference between coming out of these fixtures with the right attitude or not.
The last thing they need is to be losing faith in the manager or the project anytime soon and the international break gives them the chance to see exactly why that is; wins will come under Pellegrini and these players – they just need to the patience to see it through.
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