Everton Defeat Places David Moyes In 'Must-Win Territory'
It’s official: West Ham will spend the international break below the relegation line.
While the Hammers aren’t quite the Premier League’s crisis club yet, the sky over the London Stadium is turning darker day-by-day.
David Moyes was left exasperated by his side’s latest defeat, a 1-0 loss at Everton, and was blunt in his assessment of the team’s performance.
“We’re still trying to put new players in and find out more about them,” the 59-year-old told reporters at Goodison Park. “We found out little bits, but it was mainly the players I know about who let me down at different times with poor play overall.
“The players who played last year are not playing up to their level and we’re introducing new players as well. We didn’t today, but we have been showing signs that we’re getting back to our level. We just couldn’t put two or three passes together and when we got in the final third, we almost always made the wrong decision.”
Despite leading the East London outfit through a couple of positive seasons, Moyes has never completely won over a small section of the club’s fanbase. They accuse him of repeating the same tactical and player selection mistakes. West Ham’s fifth defeat of the season added fuel to the fire.
Moyes returned to his favoured formation and handed starts to several underperforming players, including Tomáš Souček and Jarrod Bowen. He also waited until the deadlock was broken and the hour-mark passed to make his first changes of the afternoon, hooking Lucas Paquetá and Pablo Fornals for Saïd Benrahma and Maxwel Cornet.
It is becoming a theme.
West Ham made several significant transfers in the summer and were only outspent by Chelsea and Manchester United. But none of the club’s new arrivals have made a splash.
Gianluca Scamacca is yet to break his Premier League duck, Alphonse Areola remains second in command to Łukasz Fabiański, and Thilo Kehrer has made a run of high-profile errors.
However, this isn’t new. Moyes showed no interest in rotation last season, with his treatment of new arrivals verging on contempt. Alex Kral – an established Croatia international – played one minute of Premier League football. Nikola Vlasic – a marquee arrival from CSKA Moscow – was limited to six starts.
Again, it is becoming a theme.
Those facts leave sceptical supporters reaching for the same questions:
Moyes has been reluctant to introduce new players in the past, is history repeating itself with Paquetá, Cornet, and Scamacca?
It’s been a while since West Ham enjoyed success in the league, would a tactical refresh help?
Moyes is extremely loyal to players who saved his team’s bacon in the pandemic season, have they become undroppable in his eyes?
The only way for the Hammers to silence their critics and vanquish the dark clouds floating over Stratford is to win heavily and often. They face Wolves, the team directly above them in the table, next.
Moyes is already in must-win territory.