Sam Inkersole is the West Ham man for Football: London.com. ClaretandHugh invited him to give his view on the Moyes regime and what may be to come from the man who faces his former team Everton tomorrow evening at Goodison Park.
By Sam Inkersole
One point from his first two games, improved fitness levels and a kick up the backside for the players – David Moyes is doing the right things at West Ham since his appointment.
But, lets not run before we walk. There is still plenty of room for improvement with the players who were woefully underperforming and far too comfortable under the Butlins-style reign of Slaven Bilic. The three goals conceded under Moyes’ tenure have been typical of West Ham over the past 18 months – avoidable and littered with errors.
Last Thursday, the manager was ten minutes late to his pre-match press conference ahead of the Leicester game and told the assembled reporters: “Sorry I’m late, there is quite a lot of work that needs to be done.” He’s not wrong.
Moyes knows he doesn’t have time on his side so of course he was going to say the right things, ruffle a few feathers and appease the sceptical fanbase. The man himself has a point to prove as well after his last forays into management with Manchester United, Real Sociedad and in particular, the dismal time at Sunderland.
You get the sense that Moyes has a spring back in his step, re-discovered that steely reserve after his short time out of the game. He wanted a challenge and he has certainly been given one in turning the Hammers ship around. He wants to prove he still has what it takes to succeed as a manager in the most demanding league in the world and he is at a very demanding football club to try and prove it.
Speaking of challenges, it’s Everton away on Wednesday night, when Moyes will return to his old stamping ground of 11 years and it’s a game Moyes desperately wants to win. That’s a given, he’s in a results business, but picking up three massive points against a fellow struggling club ahead of a brutal December will be enormous.
Moyes dropped Mark Noble for the Leicester game – he isn’t messing around. Angelo Ogbonna is on the chopping block, as is Pedro Obiang, you could extend that to Aaron Cresswell too. The untouchables in the squad under Bilic are no more, everyone has to fight for their place. Look at the renaissance of Marko Arnautovic, when did you have him down as a box-to-box midfielder?
Moyes said it himself on Monday to reporters, there is absolutely no room for sentiment when he walks to the dugout at Goodison Park on Wednesday night. He knows his job, he needs to get a win and ideally a clean sheet to make that midweek trek for the Hammers faithful worthwhile.
That’s what we are getting with Moyes. He knows what he needs to do and he won’t be skirting anything to make sure he is successful at doing it. It might not be pretty, it might take until the New Year to be fully effective, but you get the sense that the Scotsman will get it done.
The views expressed here are solely those of the blogger and are not necessarily shared by ClaretandHugh
Let’s just get on with it instead of talking on and on and on . Both Everton and us need a win on Wednesday night but , big time . …. it’s getting really tiring reading on here where fans want to blame certain players as if our problems are down to them as individuals . Those same players that got us promoted and kept us up . Too many fans talk all day as if they know better than a Manager . For Gods sake , please stop having a go at Carroll . Seems most of you have forgotten his goals . Keep on digging at him like this and you will kill his spirit to play . It looks like a lot of you want to just keep on and on and on about one player when there is a complete squad to complain about ,,, not forgetting a manager that was clueless and couldn’t motivate the team .
To get us out of relegation places I would rather see us play like a Bus than a Ferrari .
A lot of fans have collectively contributed to our poor performance with Thier continuous
Witch Hunts . Time to call it a day and get behind the team instead of picking on individual players . Pretty sure there are a lot of fans that would love us to win on Wednesday no matter who scores .. but , there is always a minority that want to see us lose just to get rid of certain players they don’t like . Really Sad when you think about it .
, those are the fans we DONT NEED or want . The same fans that have gotten rid of good managers in the past . We all saw what happens when the fans get behind the team against Leicester,, so ,, let’s get behind them again and stop the crap .
0-2 West Ham United , 3 points and climbing . ( don’t give a monkeys ball about pundits )
So Bilic played all eleven positions for us. None of our problems were down to lazy players.
What a load of bs. One point from 6 against two bang average sides. It’s almost like Bilic didnt win away at arsenal, Man City and liverpool and never dropped Noble-as his tenure gets airbrushed as lazy unfit blah blah blah. Moyes has had little impact so far and form remains relegation material. The real issue for both is a lack of quality in key positions- Ogbonna on chopping block replaced by who?!, Cresswell the same. We know what we are getting with Moyes- the guy that took Sunderland down
Give the bloke a chance and as Kevin says get behind the team. I’m sick of all the negativity on here, according to all the keyboard warriors here there was going to be mass protests against Leicester, the atmosphere was going to be toxic, fighting in the streets, Brady out posters, sack the board….blah blah blah, shame you lot forgot to tell the few heroes in the Bobby Moore lower that started the ‘Claret and blue Army’ chanting that grew and grew and soon the whole stadium was rocking, yes, you know that stadium you all seem to bloody hate, that stadium that doesn’t make any noise, well I can tell you that from my seat in block 252 it was jumping, yes only the one point but at least I went home with a smile on my face having enjoyed my evening out!.
I realise I may be in the minority, however, I’m beginning to think that Moyes might just be the right man for the job in hand, which is purely and simply to keep us up this season.
It is plain for all to see that he has installed some determination and improved the fitness
Levels in the short time he has had.
I think he may sacrifice one of our so called bigger names in January to raise some cash
to inject some much needed pace up front. I say this assuming that Sakho will be going
As soon as the window opens. I lust think there will be one more out the door too.
I also wouldn’t mind a rock solid left back coming in as I think Cresswell doesn’t look the same player without Payet playing in front of him.