Robert Snodgrass calls on West Ham team-mates to improve defensively

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West Ham United midfielder Robert Snodgrass feels his side need to tighten up defensively, according to the club’s official website.

The Scotsman says that the Hammers were too leaky in pre-season and of course they shipped five goals on the opening weekend of the Premier League season against Manchester City.

He said: “We were conceding goals in pre-season as well. The manager’s touched on it saying after the game we cannot keep conceding goals.

“It’s probably sometimes the best thing that can happen because you need to go back to the drawing board. We gifted them a couple of goals and with sloppy backpasses.”

TBR’s View – How good is Pellegrini at organising a defence?

It seems a ridiculous criticism of a manager who has won the Premier League and been in the latter stages of the Champions League.

But Pellegrini favoured a high defensive line at Manchester City which was often exposed and has not used his second summer in charge of West Ham to tighten up the backline.

Snodgrass has mentioned that the issues were there in pre-season – so Pellegrini must have seen them – but what can he do about them?

Obviously, a game against Manchester City isn’t the best one on which to judge a defence, but Pellegrini will need to show that he’s capable of putting together and coaching a defence that is good enough to push the Hammers where they want to be this season.