A selection of West Ham United fans took to social media during their loss at home to Newcastle United on Saturday to share their thoughts on Manuel Pellegrini replacing Mark Noble with Albian Ajeti at half-time.
The Irons entered the break two goals behind at home to the Magpies, after centre-half duo Ciaran Clark and Federico Fernandez fired past Roberto Jimenez.
West Ham had held more of the possession when they returned to the dressing room, but had only turned two of their five shots on target, while the Toon hit six of their seven efforts on target from just 31.7% of the ball, per WhoScored data.
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In search of something to inspire a comeback, Pellegrini made a double change at half-time with Ajeti coming on for Noble and Manuel Lanzini replacing Andriy Yarmolenko.
Only Sebastien Haller and Declan Rice had spent less time on the ball for West Ham from their outfield players in the opening 45 than Yarmolenko, while Noble marginally eclipsed Pablo Zabaleta.
Despite his reduced time in possession, Noble had attempted (26) and completed (21) more passes than almost all of his teammates before being replaced, with Felipe Anderson the only other non-Irons defender to complete more than 20.
Noble rarely made an impact in the final-third, though, as just eight of his passes were made in Newcastle’s defensive part of the pitch, while also offering little defensively with no interceptions or clearances and won just one tackle from three attempts.
Yet West Ham fans were not impressed by Pellegrini’s half-time switch, going by some of the reactions shared…
