At West Ham, hopes are beginning to fade and die as a string of losses in the League and Europe raises the possibility that the encouraging start was just another false dawn. Can they overcome a resolute Everton team and come back in style?
West Ham’s stellar start to the season has been officially downgraded to mediocre following two well-earned losses to kick off their demanding seven-game schedule in 21 days. Wins earlier in the season against Brighton and Chelsea are now considered freak early-season anomalies due to disappointingly poor performances in Birmingham and Athens.
The two tasteless defeats have returned attention to David Moyes’s future, whose deal expires at the end of this campaign. Exasperation at Villa Park was particularly acute, and it was exacerbated by the manager’s remarks made after the game, implying that the hosts were progressing more quickly than his own team. an analysis that conveniently ignores the two managers’ respective tenures. While Unai Emery is only recently commemorating his first year at Villa Park, Moyes is no new manager; he has been in charge at the London Stadium for nearly four years.
Even though Moyes has managed more than 1100 games, he is surprisingly prickly and thin-skinned when questions at press conferences deviate from the mundane. He returns to a gloomy and uninspired manner that would make Private Frazer from Dad’s Army seem like an optimist. The concern is that he seems to be talking up the opposition and focusing more on how to stop them than how to beat them in the locker room before games and during halftime.
Without a doubt, Moyes built the West Ham team that plays today. Its inadequacies, concerning both manpower and strategy, are entirely his fault. Even the most casual observer must be able to predict that the decision to forgo adding more striker resources in the summer would be disastrous. After a strong start, Michail Antonio tends to fade, and when Danny Ings was being scouted, nobody could have predicted that he would play as a lone striker. That one must be making Unai Emery laugh a lot!
Ironically, the Hammers’ goal-scoring performance this season has been surprisingly good, even though it required a significant amount of luck to continue their streak of scoring goals in all of their games last weekend. Instead, the team’s vulnerability has been shown in defense, as they have given up 16 goals in their first nine games. Under Moyes, this is by far the worst defensive start to a season. The defensive strategy of inviting long shots and crosses in a compact and narrow area has been exposed as players attempt to move forward faster. A central defense that has been assigned to block crosses all afternoon is extremely open to quick attacks from opponents. The traditional remedy for a weak defense will be to fortify it further.
The outcome at Olympiacos doesn’t really mean anything. Moyes took a risk by using a group of backup players who, to be honest, are either not very good or past their prime. Was that because he thought the Greek league leaders were weaker than he was, or was he ready to write the game off because there were more significant games coming up? Others must have realized that the Hammers would be better off dropping down into the Conference in order to increase their chances of winning more trophies and a fourth straight campaign in Europe. A Europa League knockout stage involving Liverpool, Brighton, Manchester United, and Newcastle would be tough to overcome; is there anyone who can see West Ham defeating any of these over two legs?The visitors to London Stadium tomorrow are Everton, original members of the Premier League Calamity Club. The Toffees, who are already involved in the yearly struggle for relegation, are also subject to sanctions as a result of an FA probe into their financial affairs. This week, there were rumors circulating that the punishment might be as severe as a 12-point Premier League point deduction. Should that occur, it would deal a severe blow to hopes of survival, possibly even enabling the other desperate cases that are probably fighting for their lives.
Everton now resembles a standard Sean Dyche squad. They are resilient, put in a lot of effort, and share Moyes’s infatuation. The two managers are derived from the same tattered material that ought to have been discarded years ago. Regretfully, the Toffees do not score many goals. In what will be a desperate campaign for them, there isn’t much to entice the fans to get off their seats if the graft is ignored. Doucoure, who last season appeared out of nowhere to score crucial goals at precisely the right time, poses the biggest threat for us tomorrow. Or maybe three or four years from now, Calvert-Lewin will finally find his goal-scoring form that made him such a sought-after player.
Moyes’ task will be to field a team that can overcome an impenetrable Everton defense. The Hammers’ attacking attempts can lack originality and urgency when up against a well-organized defense, and the fans won’t be fond of yet another boring performance. Everton is well aware that losing to the home team will make the supporters happy.
Changes were expected after the Villa game, but nothing is certain now that we’ve seen the prospective replacements struggle to make an impression in Athens. But because of Emerson’s suspension and questions about Vladimir Coufal’s fitness, there will be at least one mandatory change.
Moyes is unlikely to make early switches if things appear to be going wrong, and it is hard to imagine him making drastic selection changes. Around the 75-minute mark, we can anticipate the usual prearranged substitutions: Ings for Antonio, Said Benrahma in place of Lucas Paqueta or Thomas Soucek. It raises the question of why Divin Mubama is never used as a substitute and, if he’s lucky, only gets to play for two minutes during injury time each week. For young players, a 20–25 minute run-out is necessary for the experience to be valuable. But that luxury is never available because of Moyes’ methodical approach to game management, which prohibits matches from ending while one team is ahead.
Having witnessed the transformation that new management can bring to teams like Tottenham, Brighton, and Villa, it is depressing to have to trudge along under the shadow of a cautious and uninspired boss. The rumors that Mourinho will take over next summer do not help the atmosphere. That is undoubtedly just media tittle-tattle, and the club has goals that go beyond just another tactical failure. ICYMI!
