West Ham coach Manuel Pellegrini is glad that his side will face Liverpool during the early weeks of the season.
West Ham is looking forward to a better season after making nine signings this summer. They will be facing Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday afternoon. However, despite facing a stern test this weekend, Pellegrini is content with getting a trip to the Merseyside giants out of the way as the earliest opportunity.
“At some moment in the season you have to play Liverpool away, so better to start with them. I know that they have very good moment with a lot of trust in what they are doing, getting to the Champions League final last season. In football the results can be depending just on two or three balls that change, we have a lot of trust to go there and see what we can do,” Pellegrini told reporters.
The former Manchester City manager replaced David Moyes in the dugout at the London Stadium.
As a coach, he has managed teams in Spain, England, Argentina, Chile, China and Ecuador. A qualified civil engineer and former footballer, after retiring as a player, he moved into coaching in his native Chile and subsequently Argentina. Pellegrini has won national leagues in four different countries.
Pellegrini moved to Europe in 2004 to take the manager’s post at Villarreal, a club near Valencia. Under Pellegrini, Villarreal achieved a third-place finish in La Liga in 2004–05, a Champions League semi-final in 2005–06 and broke the big two in 2008 by securing a second-place finish in La Liga in 2007–08.
Pellegrini’s consistent record at Villarreal attracted the attention of Real Madrid and he was appointed manager there in 2009. He amassed a total of 96 points, a club record until it was surpassed by José Mourinho in the 2011–12 season, but lost the title to Barcelona by three points. He was dismissed after one season and later lamented the Galácticos policy employed at Real which prevented him from building a balanced team.
Pellegrini took up the manager’s role at Málaga in November 2010. He led Málaga to a fourth-place finish in his first full season and to qualification for the UEFA Champions League. He made it to the quarter-finals of the 2012–13 Champions League, becoming the only coach to take two different teams to the Champions League quarter-finals in their debut seasons in the competition. On 22 May 2013, Pellegrini confirmed he would leave Málaga at the end of the 2012–13 La Liga season. On 14 June 2013, he was appointed manager of Manchester City, and won the Football League Cup and Premier League in his first season as manager, in the process becoming the first manager from outside Europe to manage a team to the English Premier League title. The title winning season was also noted for goal scoring prowess with Manchester City scoring 151 goals in all competitions – an English football record.
After leaving EPL, On 27 August 2016, Pellegrini was named manager of Chinese Super League club Hebei China Fortune, replacing Li Tie. He took charge of his first match on 10 September 2016 in a home game against Guangzhou Evergrande, which Hebei lost 3–0.[
On 19 May 2018, Hebei China Fortune confirmed Pellegrini had left the club. Pellegrini’s last match in charge of Hebei was a 2–1 win over Chongqing Dangdai Lifan.