West Ham coach Manuel Pellegrini compared Jack Wilshere to Italy legend Andrea Pirlo. West Ham have had a poor start to their Premier League campaign with two defeats. Wilshere and his midfield partner Mark Noble haven’t been able to link up well with one another and former West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has said that the duo should not play together.
When asked about Allardyce’s comments, Pellegrini said, “That is the opinion of Sam Allardyce. I know him and I respect him and everyone has his opinion. One opinion is that you can play one good player with the other one and the other is that they can play 4-4-2. If you need fast players they cannot do it. If you need good technical players that they don’t lose any balls, they can play together.
In football there are a lot of things you can do. Remember Juventus, around four or five years ago, played with one holding midfielder. It was Andrea Pirlo. And Pirlo is the same as Jack. He has the same characteristics as Jack. I think that every good player can play with others.”
Pellegrini believes that Jack Wilshere can get back to the form that once saw him being held in high regard. He said, “I’m sure about that. Because he is just 26 years old, and because he knows better how he must manage his physical work, so as not to be injured. In the last two seasons he played a lot of games. This season we’ve been working with him from July 1 and he’s not having any problems.”
West Ham play Arsenal tomorrow at the Emirates Stadium.
