Forum | General Discussion

You don't get to manage over 1,000 top flight professional football games without picking up at least some degree of nous, after all you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time can you?

Well it seems that Hammers erstwhile 'leader' seems to think he can given his recent team selections and their complete lack of motivation! Now it is very easy for a 'keyboard warrior' to criticise from afar bereft of what is really going on, if that is the case regarding this article then we can only offer the most heartfelt of apologies.

However unfortunately Moysie, the Moyesasaurus or even the Moyesiah as he has been called must surely know that this is the beginning of the end, or to paraphrase Churchill, at least the end of the beginning! Most managers will refer to injuries and suspensions as a reason for a tragic loss of form, but the Hammers manager knows that excuse would be lame to say the least.

Moyes DOES have a superb squad with strength in depth, not only that he has access to a raft of academy players most managers would cut their arms off for, but for some reason he seems to be obsessed with 'converting' players from their natural position into ones that are not!

It may have originally been because he didn't have the players available, like when he managed at Preston and Everton, it may have been part of a recipe or cunning plan to fool the opposition, but with the Hammers all it does is confuse the players and lead to wholesale disenfranchisement.

Moyes has had a good innings, winning the Conference League Cup last season was surely the height of his managerial achievements and one that he can be immensely proud of, but 'the times they are a changing' and Moyes' old school approach has been creaking at the edges for a very long time. The victory over Fiorentina masked what had been a general malaise domestically but 'earned' Moyes the right to see out the final year of his contract, winning the club's first major trophy in over 40 years takes some doing after all.

The point is though that Moyes 'peaked' with the victory and really should have left the club with his head held high before the new season, whereas now he is in deep danger of having to leave with his head held half way up his backside!

No one apart from the manager knows his plans for the future, let alone his plans for tonight's game against Arsenal. His usual plan A is to let players who have little or no game time have a 'run out' while keeping his 'big guns' on the bench in case they are needed. The problem with that approach is that players who have had little or no game time tend to 'overtry' when given the opportunity and do NOT play their natural game.

Moyes might as well start his 'strongest' team tonight against Arsenal in the League Cup because the next domestic fixture will see two of the club's best players unavailable due to their having amassed too many yellow cards!

Fans hoping to see Divin Mubama or Callum Marsahll will most likely be disappointed, it is NOT Moyse's way to 'blood' youngsters, possibly one of the main reasons Mubama has decided against signing a new contract or extending his existing one and who can blame him? Seeing Danny 'Uncle' Ings start ahead of him must surely show that the youngster has no future at the club while Moyes is in charge!

Miracles do happen, but tonight is most likely not the night to witness one....Ed

The 0-1 home defeat by Everton meant three losses on the spin, three woeful performances and another FOUR matches in quick succession that could ALL be potential Hammer Horror Shows and not the best of ways to start November, but it is probably more than apt for Halloween!

A young Hammers fan, a girl who was probably seven years old, bedecked in her newly acquired Betway shirt seemed to know a lot more than David Moyes appears to do by saying "don't pass it to Antonio" with only FIVE minutes gone in the game against Everton and she was right!

To single out Mikey Antono would be wrong though, because with a few exceptions the Irons were 'inadequate' to say the least! If criticism is due to be handed out, David Moyes MUST be included, how unmotivated the team that took to the pitch was plain to see. Perhaps Moyes needs to go on one of those 'motivation' classes so beloved by the Americans, a sort of managerial 'fight school'?

It beggars belief that a relatively expensively assembled team full of International players could collectively be so awful, in fact the opposite of a team, perhaps Moyes just can't handle 'top' players, instead relying on throw backs like Danny Ings?

In testimony to how dreadful Hammers actually were, the best home player on the pitch by a country mile was goal keeper Alphonse Areola! Had it not been for his intervention the scoreline of defeat could have been far more comprehensive, only Kudus, Alavarez and possibly Bowen looked even vaguely up for the fight.

Coufal put in a shift but ran out of puff and 'Pacman' tried a 'showboat' too far, too often. The rest of the team should hang their heads in shame, James Ward-Prowse had an absolute stinker, a CDM he is NOT! Antonio did his best 'Bamby on Ice' impression, repeatedly while the rest of the team looked completely disconnected!

Everton of course played the Ref like a salmon, there propensity to go down with 'head injuries' would have Harley Street specialists wringing their hands with glee in anticipation of a 'full house'. The Ref was crap, the football was awful and it rained and rained....thoroughly depressing and NOT want a fan or Press member wanted ahead of what is probably going to be a 'reral tonking' by Arsenal during Wednesday's League Cup match.

To add to Hammers woes, Lucas Paqueta and Edson Alvarez are BOTH banned for the away game to Brentford having picked up too many yellow cards in quick succession, but generally at least it shows they have 'fire in their belly's', unlike most of the rest of the team! - Ed