NO team is ever “too good” to go down and West Ham are sleepwalking towards relegation.
The Hammers have been faltering domestically for over a year now – but their form has been masked by an impressive run in Europe last season, which saw David Moyes’ men reach the Europa League semi-finals.
A whopping £160million was spent in the summer to help West Ham and Moyes reinvent themselves, with the Scotsman admitting: “I have to change the way West Ham play.”
In came the likes of Lucas Paqueta, Gianluca Scamacca, Nayef Aguerd and Maxwel Cornet.
But the Hammers are yet to reap the rewards of their splurge and Moyes is unwilling to trust his impressive attacking cohort, sticking with a defensive, low-energy style.
Up until Sunday’s lifeless 2-0 derby loss to Tottenham, key West Ham figures have arrogantly dismissed the possibility that the London Stadium tenants could drop into the Championship.
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Moyes declared in December that his team were in a European battle, NOT a relegation battle.
Such comments came after recording just four league wins at that point.
Hammers captain Declan Rice parroted his manager’s delusion, insisting West Ham were not in “a relegation fight at all”.
But with West Ham sitting in the bottom three with just 20 points from 23 games, recording one win in their last ten Prem games, and mustering just four shots on target in their last three outings, the tune has predictably changed.
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Perhaps matching Avram Grant’s points tally after 23 games in the relegation season of 2010-11 has awoken the Hammers from their state of paralysis.
“Let’s see who’s up for the fight,” said Moyes, after jeers of “West Ham are going down” rang around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where his team failed to lay a glove on their London rivals.
“I’ll be looking to see the colour of the players’ eyes in the next week,” challenged the ex-Manchester United boss.
Lifelong Hammers fan Flynn Downes, who joined the club from Swansea in the summer, said: “We know what we’re in for NOW, it’s a relegation battle, if you like the facts or not, that’s what it is so yeah, let’s have it.”
Rice, who looks set to leave West Ham in the summer with the Premier League’s big boys circling, even questioned Moyes’ tactics.
Moyes sent out a back five protected by a midfield three who have posed very little attacking threat this season, leaving Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen isolated.
The Hammers are setting up to not concede goals, which is all well and good, but they’re neglecting one important factor that wins you football matches… scoring goals.
The England star said: “When you play with five at the back and the three, like we set up today, maybe our strikers felt a bit isolated when we got the ball up to them — they didn’t really have enough around them, not enough support.”
Despite West Ham’s league position, Moyes is safe for now, according to The Telegraph.
Astonishingly, the Hammers overlords have taken encouragement from recent performances.
Up next are relegation rivals Nottingham Forest at the London Stadium on Saturday – a team they lost to 1-0 earlier on in the season.
Lose that six-pointer and you’d expect Moyes would be dismissed – the Hammers simply cannot afford to waste such fixtures with Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd still to come.
But the Guardian reports that a lack of alternatives could keep Moyes in a job regardless of Saturday’s result.
Available managers will undoubtedly be reluctant to accept a short-term firefighting deal which poses the risk of stamping a relegation on their CV.
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Had the Hammers been more ruthless pre-World Cup, their New Year fortunes may have been different and their attraction far greater.
A new manager would’ve had a six-week break to tinker on the training ground and 23 Prem games to claw West Ham’s squad back into top half contention, where it should be.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
