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Comments
It isn't working and hasn't done so for a while. Being more defensive and trying to grind out even more so than we do now.... I think it'll just delay the inevitable.
Unfortunately, West Ham is in my blood and has been since the early 70s. I respect the opinion of those who want to give the manager more time but I have had enough and I do not see him or his style changing anytime soon.
We do have quite a few very good players. Those same players are probably starting to wonder why they're playing in such a negative, safe back and sideways passing, backs to the wall, anemic going forward type of team (if they haven't already). Even with the safe try n hold on to the ball and build possession up the pitch mindset we still certainly do not do it well and whilst we haven't yet been hammered for a while we are definitely a defensively error prone team who can't claw our way back into a game is someone scores against us.
I see no reason why even at 2 down, we could not have finished on the front foot but there seemed little desire.
I like the look of Paq and feel that he just needs to have a few things work out, he is clearly an intelligent footballer, Scam is a worry as he does not have the pace required for the isolated role he is being asked to fulfill and unfortunately, Bowen is currently all hustle and bustle with little in the way of end product.
Watching Brentford away to Citeh was telling, when they broke it was purposeful and at a blistering pace, we do not seem to have either.
I think that DM has only a few games after the WC to show that he can get this team back on the front foot and playing the whole 90 with purpose and confidence, I unfortunately do not think he has many…
Just my tuppence worth
This taken from Twitter last night:
So we can argue amongst ourselves as to whether we're negative, pragmatic, unlucky etc. but the facts are that this drop in form is not, as has been suggested, a blip. If not relegation form, it is certainly relegation-battle form and ultimately it's the manager that takes that responsibility.
Moyes has only lost the players he was happy to lose in the summer, and has been insistent that he has the final say in who has come in, so we have to assume this is his squad. If it's not performing as it should, then it's on him to resolve it, and I've seen no real evidence that he can. With Arsenal away on Boxing Day, if we stick with Moyes then it's almost a statistical certainty that we'll lose (his Big Six away record is a well documented embarrassment) and then we could quite easily be in the bottom three with almost half the season gone. If that doesn't worry people then I don't know what will.
A new manager may not change things. A new manager may make things worse. But that's no bigger risk than letting Moyes carry on in this form, IMO.
Don't have any confidence he can change it around tactically, feel he's praying/counting on the guys just finding form through the fact they are quality players who shouldn't be in a relegation battle...but shades of Pellegrini here
You can argue he's been hamstrung by the injuries to Aguerd and Cornet, but every team has injury problems and the point of a bigger, balanced squad is to mitigate the risk of injury.
I guess I just don't see what more Moyes can do. If he hasn't improved our form in nearly twelve months then I can't see anything changing in the next six. And if he doesn't then there's a very real chance that we'll go down.
Fabianski
Coufal - Zouma - Aguerd - Cresswell
Soucek - Rice
Bowen - Paqueta - Benrahma
Antonio
He’ll go back to his safe bets in Coufal & Antonio, because Kehrer & Scamacca are very inconsistent (I don’t rate Kehrer, think he’s only going to be of use in a back 3. Aguerd will hopefully be fit to start games & Paqueta will stay in because Fornals & Lanzini aren’t consistent enough.
We’ll have Cornet back too, you’d assume. I also think the attempt to change style isn’t working. We need to go back to what we were. A side who, in the main, defended well & countered with pace & quality. We don’t have a good enough CM to change to this new way of playing. At the moment we are playing into teams hands. As long as we play a side who defends relatively well, we lose the game.
I would quite like to see a 4-3-3 (not 4-2-3-1) &
Fornals - Rice - Paqueta in the middle 3. You can then play Bowen - Antonio - Benrahma in the front 3. That, to me, looks like a much stronger, balanced side. Paqueta & Scamacca will not be used effectively with Soucek in midfield & Dawson/Zouma in defence. They just won’t get enough of the ball.
There's a risk associated either way, and I don't envy the board having to make such a decision. There are no guarantees that Moyes, or indeed a new manager, can arrest this slide, but I think I'd rather give someone new a go because we know that Moyes is struggling right now.
You only have to read Rice’s comments yesterday. The team is behind him & fully supporting of him as manager. The effort is there, there’s no loss of the dressing room. We’re into the final 16 of Europe.
I back him to sort the form out. What that looks like? I don’t know. It may be finishing 14th & going again next season. It may be winning the Europa Conference. It may be ending up 8th.
The World Cup has come at the perfect time. It will act as a reset & allow us to prepare for the rest of the season.
Hopefully us being rubbish again opens up space for us to counter attack again. We need Cornet back for that and probably Antonio on the wing. We’ve really suffered for a lack of pacy attackers for a while now.
Believe me, I'd rather not be discussing Moyes going. I had hoped that he'd be able to build on the last two seasons, but we haven't even stood still; we've regressed in both performance and result, IMO.
And the big questions re your last paragraph are; will Moyes change our approach (he hasn't thus far so I have no reason to believe he will in January), and would he be brave enough to play Cornet, Scamacca and Antonio in the same team, as you've suggested? I just can't see it.
Also I don’t think our counter attacking has been “found out” but more a case of not being very good at it for some time as we can’t convert chances into goals. Leicester counter attacked yesterday and took their chances. Would anyone of ours hit the shot first time like Maddison.
If we could cut out the stupid mistakes it would help as they nearly always end up with goals. We stopped this at the latter part of the 19/20 season and carried it on for another season and a half but seemed to slip back at the beginning of this year.
Apart from Arsenal nobody is having a consistent season and I wonder if in part that has been due to the moronic idea to hold a World Cup in November.