David Moyes reckons the Irons were “great” in the second half of tonight’s draw with Leicester declaring: “They are low on confidence, have lost their manager and that makes it very difficult .
“Then we lost an early goal but got it back and in the second half had a real go at it and in the end could have nicked it.”
He was pleased with Marko Arnautovic and said: “He played really well on Sunday with little praise.”
And reminded of some comments he had made about his game the manager said: “I explained that if they don’t run they don’t play – he’s got power and pace and right now is having to do a job on the right side for us.
“He’s doing well as there are others who are fighting for the left sided job.”
Generally we showed some positives tonight but running and total commitment are ‘givens’ in this game as far as I’m concerned.”
West Ham played with much more spirit and determination tonight, and the crowd responded with great passion.
That said, it seemed that by playing Andy Carroll as a single lone-wolf striker, we were looking to score via aerial superiority and/or strength from set pieces. I had predicted that the 4-2-3-1 would make goal-scoring difficulty, and that was the case. To his credit, Carroll did make a few good headers out of defense, but did little to threaten the Leicester defense.
Were we great-no. If we had played great we would have created more chances to score and won the game comfortably; the performance was satisfactory, but we really needed the 3 points, given our present situation.
Masuaku showed a lot of class and he was my MOTM. Arnautovic was determined to prove his critics wrorng, and had a pretty good game. However, we had a lot of trouble gaining any sort of initiative in the first half, which was mainly characterized by a lot of long-balls to nowhere (both sides). Our second half saw a big change in our effort, and perhaps we could have won, if Moyes had bought on Sakho much earlier, and switched to a 4-4-2. Lanzini looked threatening at times, but is still well below his best.
Our play showed considerable improvement in the second period, and at times, we put together some exciting passing movements from the middle of the park.
Moyes will have a dilemma with the imminent return of Antonio and Chicharito.
However, while he improved the solidity of the midfield by omitting Mark Noble, he must seriously address his methods of getting the guys to score. I strongly suggest an improved formation (4-4-2 or 3-5-2), allowing more options in attack. Did Moyes do the right thing by bringing n Sakho in the last few minutes of extra time? Hardly. Unless Sakho failed to work hard in pre-match training, Moyes has essentially slapped the man in the face! If this sort of treatment from the gaffer continues, Sakho will be gone in January, and it will be West Ham who suffers. Looks like Moyes has been mesmerized by AC, in much the same way as Slaven Bilic-sad day for Sakho!
To be fair Max you won’t have seen it on TV but Carroll ran tirelesslly all match, he did a lot of work off the ball, in terms of effort I would put it right up there, he was a constant pain to their defenders who are excellent, without the flying elbows this time. All the players played pretty well, we can’t run before we can walk and at the moment we are still very much in that walking phase, we actually strung a lot of passes together more than I can remember since Payet. We had a couple of hairy moments but the players look like even in the tight spaces they are more composed, it was a soft goal and Hart will be disappointed but apart from that he played well. One thing that was very pleasing was that most of our crosses were really drilled into the box and quite a few hit early before the defence could set itself, sooner or later that will pay dividends, we are starting to look more solid and most of the 50 50’s our players commited too which must take a huge effort when you are low on confidence, I was happy for Cheikh also that he scored the goal after missing some chances against Watford, Arnautovic was very good again and Masuaku was excellent as a left winger that side of the field looks more solid now. Well done boys COYI !!!
I have been saying this for a long time that Masuaku and Cressy should be played together. Neither are good enough to play as a LWB but when one is in as a full back, it allows the other the freedom to get forward and get some decent crosses in. Both can deliver a decent cross in to the box from the wing for when Carroll is playing and both are capable of taking players on and getting to the byline to cut the ball back which will be more beneficial when Hernandez is playing. We know Antonio can do both on the right. That leaves us with the dilemma of where does Arnie go when those two are back and fit?? Ayew, Sakho. anymore we can throw in the mix?
We needed 3 points badly . We almost got them as well . A marked improvement with running & commitment caused the fans to reciprocate and really get behind the lads .
We could find ourselves in 19th after this weekend but , from what I saw there is definitely hope and I am optimistic of a revival . Everyone worked hard and with that attitude we should survive this season . MOM for me was Masuaku .
We have an extremely tough run of games ahead of us and maybe we can surprise a couple of teams . But , only if and , only IF we show that same commitment consistently .
COYHAMMERS .