What's With All The Negative Vibes Moysie?

In the far fetched cult movie 'Kelly's Heroes' about a spectacular heist behind enemy lines, Donald Sutherland, who plays a 'hippy' maverick tank captain, questions why his co-conspirator Clint Eastwood doesn't "get with the program" and "why the negative vibes man?". Having overseen an impressive start to the season, guiding the club through some appallingly difficult , some say deliberately arranged early fixtures, Hammers manager David Moyes seems to have suffered a 'lack of conviction' in his team selection for recent games.

Mark Noble has been a Stirling servant and 'fixture' at West Ham for over 15 years, but even the player himself must have been baffled why David Moyes chose to start him in the last two games. Perhaps it is because 'Nobes' when playing before was able to 'shield' his lack of pace and guile, but not appearing for nine games and then playing perhaps exposed the chasm. As soon as he was replaced at half time the team showed more endeavour and looked far better, but it is unfair to just pick on Noble, it is really his manager's fault.

Why on earth go so negative with his team selection against Brighton? Many fans are not that fond of Gary Neville, but in his commentary for Sky's match day coverage he repeatedly questioned why Moyes had set his team up as if they were playing Barcelona or Real Madrid, and he was totally right to ask the question! Moyes did actually admit that he had got it wrong against Brighton, but he also got it wrong against Chelsea, his team selections for both matches were extremely negative to say the very least, it is as if he has suddenly stopped believing in his 'project'.

Gone is the enthusiasm of just a couple of weeks ago, so what has gone wrong with the 57 year old Scot? It is probably a culmination of losing two of his key players, having to try and play a striker he absolutely doesn't 'fancy' just to keep him in the shop window, and the prospect of little or no money to spend in January. All perfectly understandable and acceptable, but what has concerned many is Moyes' reluctance to utilise some of the 'assets' at his disposal, namely Said Benrahma.

Rumours abound that Benrahma wasn't a Moyes signing, and that he was far more interested in Bournemouth's Josh King, however when the opportunity of getting Benrahma on loan presented itself the club chose the 'cheaper' option of getting Benrahma rather than buying King at the £12 Million Bournemouth were asking for the player at the time. King will of course be available at a greatly reduced price in January as Bournemouth will look to recoup at least some money before the player is allowed to leave on a free transfer in the summer when his current contract runs out.

Whatever the circumstances, Moyes needs to offset all the negativity by being bold with his team selection even though in many ways his hands are tied, unfortunately the first port of call has to be the dropping of mark Noble, swiftly followed by the benching of the totally ineffectual Sebastien Haller, a player who has been given an awful lot of time and support in order to try and get him firing on all cylinders.

As we mentioned in a previous article, Moyes has to drop Haller and in the short term replace him with Andriy Yarmolenko ahead of the return of Michail Antonio, although obviously not a centre forward, 'Yarmo' did more in45 minutes than Haller had done in the previous three games! One particular aspect being Yarmolenko's willingness to tackle payers and track back or 'hassle and harry' the opposition when not in possession of the ball.

It is to be hoped that Moyse loses all his 'negative vibes' and takes comfort from the fact that despite his appalling team selection, one bright spark emerged, step forward Ben Johnson, the youngster topped off a superb performance with his first ever top flight goal, hopefully the first of many! - Ed