28 Comments

Bowen…Fornals…Anderson – what is Moyes doing?

Jarrod Bowen’s absence from the Hammers team last night became far more irritating after the game than before it.

He arrived very late in the piece yet despite having only 10 minutes to show what he’s about, showed that was more than enough.

There was a moment when he escaped the attention of two or three City defenders and was regularly looking to move into space.

Make no mistake, this is a player of enormous promise and the manager’s idea that you pay £22 million for a player and then use him sparingly in a game which nobody expects much from is extraordinarily difficult to understand.

If you are keeping an eye on end of season goal difference Bowen for Snodgrass is hardly likely to make a massive difference.

Moyes had explained before the game how impressed he had been with the former Hull player in training but added that in his experience players arriving from the Championship needed time to adjust.

We don’t have that time and given the player’s price, and that he was the manager’s choice to play a part in saving our season, I just can’t fathom why he wasn’t given an immediate opportunity.

Moyes’ decision to ignore the growing potential of Pablo Fornals is also unfathomable  why include Anderson if you have no intention of using him.

There’s still far more questions than answers to the Moyes management style!

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

28 comments on “Bowen…Fornals…Anderson – what is Moyes doing?

  1. Maybe it’s Moyes’ masterplan to get his own back on the owners for getting rid of him first time round. He will without doubt relegate us and the hopefully leave. His treatment of Fornals is criminal, as is his insistence of constantly selecting the waste of space that Masuaku is. I know you don’t like negativity in the current situation but this has gone on long enough. I want our club back. That means goodbye to Moyes and the clowns who employ him.

    • Anderson, Bowen, Formals, Haller, Lanzini, the best part of 200k. Is Moyes keeping them free from injury ready to sell and just trying out a Championship team ready for relegation. Maybe that’s what Moyes has been told to do.

  2. An absolute puzzle why Bowen didn’t start over Snodgrass and why Fornals and Anderson didn’t figure.
    What is obvious is that Antonio up front on his own is no better than Haller, and the latter has more skill in front of goal, rather than the scatterbrain approach of the former.

    The team have to use two up front and skill in the forward midfield. The team last night was poor bordering on abject.
    It is not possible to play Cresswell and Masuaku together, neither is good at defending and they are a collective liability.
    We need to change the mindset and two attackers is a must.

  3. I agree, Hugh. It’s becoming increasingly frustrating, and I would love to know if he or any of the management team ever take the pulse of the fans by reading these forums. It might be nice if, once in a while, they engaged with the fan base to explain their thinking – much like referees and their decisions.

    Last night was embarrassing. I have made peace with the idea of going down to the Championship, which I personally think is a great league. If the ‘superstars’ we’ve bought got us there, they can stay or go, I don’t care – but at least we can stop acting like scared rabbits in the headlights. The Man City players must’ve been laughing at us after the game.

    Why Moyes feels that opting for a light loss instead of a heavy loss is acceptable is beyond me. Is that what being in the Premier League has become? It’s not about entertainment, it’s about survival (and money). He can come up with as many excuses as he likes, but he really dented my faith in him last night. I’d rather go down having had a go and actually PLAYING football rather than enduring it… Shame on them.

    • You couldn’t have said it better…..My sentiments exactly.

      • Call me an armchair expert but watching last night could someone explain a couple of things. Firstly, when Nobles energy ran out, during the second half, why was he not replaced by another midfielder? Secondly, at 2 down, why did Antonio play as a left winter leaving NOBODY in the middle?

    • Good points. And more puzzling is playing sub-standard players as Masuaku and Fredericks. I wonder how much money they get paid to square crosses straight to the opposing defenders, and for not tackling. And the 90mins to our tired legs skipper. And also playing out of sorts Antonio. Really not a lone striker. Not at all.
      It’s just as baffling as getting rid of our top und23’s.
      As someone said, maybe this is Moyes’ way of getting back at the owners. But definitely not acceptable. No, no, no.

  4. I totally agree with you Hugh. I thought we got Bowen and Soucek as we needed an instant turn around. Then Moyes states that championship players need time, which we dont have. Well he must have his reasons, but there’s no substitute for real playing time, 10 mins just aint enough.

  5. Agree with your comments. Watched the game, and we were total rubbish, if your going to park the bus do it. Do not not play one man up front as it is a complete waste of time. I really think we had a chance against them last night, as they were not that good. We should have attacked them hard, and got in there faces. NO we just waited for them to score,The future is looking very grim as i really cannot see us getting out of this mess.Trevor

  6. Can’t agree more….Moyes is hardly showing his ‘ I’m a winner ‘ mentality !! Weren’t we asking these same questions first time round ?

  7. It doesn’t matter who you pick upfront if you can’t defend. Both goals last night were the direct result of seriously bad defending. The opener was no more than a hopeful flick- on bya man left completely unmarked. It passed Diop who was so busy fouling that he didn’t even jump and sailed gently inside a completely abandoned far post!
    The second came from a pass ( I can’t call it a clearance) from our defence straight to the feet of a City player. Three touches later and Fabianski is beaten on his near post, something which should never happen. The whole squad should be made to sit down and watch the match, see how many times they gave away possession and then go out and learn how to pass a football.

  8. Totally in agreement Hugh ..as I have stated before I am not a Moyes knocker or particular fan but FFS what was that ‘plan ‘ of his all about I totally bemused. . 22m for the saviour of our cluband 24 m in Fornels and not even just a few minutes for Anderson what the f..k Mr Moyes is going on??if your aim was not to get a stuffing then you achieved that but I am losing faith by the minute with your “tacticts” to go and defend against Citeh or pool is a recipe for disaster and rely on a lucky break or a pen or og .
    It ain’t going to happen!

  9. What did people honestly expect? It’s David Moyes – he did the exact same thing when he was with us last time. For example, the game 1-1 draw against Spurs was turgid, awful football saved by the wonder goal produced by Obiang – our only shot on target. He relied on Arnautovic being three levels above any other player in the bottom half of the Prem that year.

    Moyes is not the right fit for West Ham. He never has been and he’s not going to be. The one area where I thought Moyes would improve us immediately is defensively, which hasn’t happened. We’ve not had the new manager bounce that I think the board thought would get us through this season. As with all of our recruitment, there was clearly no due diligence done on Moyes – a laughable appointment from the fact we decided he wasn’t good enough 18 months ago, but is good enough now (despite not being at another club and improving himself at that time).

    Moyes is playing an incredibly dangerous game putting all his eggs in one basket against Southampton. For me, we’re too mentally and physically fragile to be doing that.

  10. why why why does snodgrass have to keeping falling over when someone goes near him
    its embarrassing.

  11. I think the”unfinished business” Moyes has at the club is relegation.
    How can you sit the whole squad down and watch that? It’s the manager who needs to be sat down by a DOF and explain what the hell was he thinking.
    Our only attacking intent seemed to be from a Man City (btw,they did just as many as us) miss placed pass quickly followed by Antonio be hunted down by a pride of City players – All that was missing was the David Attenborough commentary!!
    How the hell are we going to get out of this ****storm if we have not got a coaching set up that is predominantly in place regardless of manager and knows the players, their abilities and current form??
    Last night was the first night I thought – I would rather be watching us play Huddersfield in the Championship, with a handful of youngsters and upcoming manager than the cowardly and hapless tactics of a once good PL manager (seven years ago) trying to cling on to a fading reputation.

  12. Please give us something to Live for, that was a defeatist performance from the manager which ran right through the team.

  13. Totally agree with all comments. Moyes is relying on goal diff to keep us up. Someone needs to tell him that scoring goals and winning games is the name of the game. Our defensive qualities are very poor so why is he relying on goal diff. Alan Smith on Sky said it all last when he stated that Moyes would probably consider it a victory, losing only 2-0. The sad thing is that I think this is true. Masuaku would not get in my Sunday team. As for not starting Bowen and choosing Masuaku instead just shows what Moyes is about – negative. Why did he not give Anderson time on the pitch to get him match fit? Fornals not on the bench? I am tempted to say he has lost the plot but I’m not sure if he had a plot or plan to start with. With this type of approach from a poor manager, it hurts me to say that we will not survive. Did you see players working hard or closing down last night? That comes from the manager and the willingness of the players to play for him. Man City were in 2nd gear and still won the game with ease.

  14. Agree with you Hugh whole heartedly.
    Moyes is trying his best to get us relegated.
    We have the best squad by far of the bottom half.

    Go now Moyes

  15. Best squad in the bottom half or not,we all know there are huge problems.Its like a ram shackle group of players brought in at different times to plug holes and its not working.The lack of pace is so obvious .There are teams like Sheff Utd and Burnley to name but 2 who cost a fraction of what our squad cost and that is reflected in the table standings.Moyes had no intention of going for a result last night and it was all down to conceding as few as possible.Come what may in the Summer the whole lot needs to be stripped back to its bare bones and rebuilt and i have come to the conclusion it could very realistically be a squad built for Championship football.Years of mismanagement have come home to roost.In Haller,Bowen and Anderson there was 100 mill sat on the bench last night.

    • Best squad in bottom half where Key players are left out in favor of players who have fought relegation battles previously under Moyes.
      Masuaku>> Really?
      Noble and Snod cannot start against fast attacking sides like City or Liverpool. Pick the games for them that suit. Start Soucek with Rice and Fornals.
      The only positive to take from Fredericks injury is that we can no longer play 5 at the back allowing an extra offensive around the middle. Zabby cant play wing back at his age.

      • Yes totally agree.. Ive written off this season just hope we survive. But if you look at top 3 they all have pace on midfield and can ping a ball from one side to another.. All we do is chase shadows

  16. Totally agree with you,what the hell is Moyes doing,is he trying to see if we can beat Norwich in finishing bottom by beating them on goal difference, absolute joke.
    We’ve got 12 cup finals coming up and the best form of defence is attack,we’ve got to go for it in every game,this negative set up is criminal for the situation we are in,you cant just write games off and say yeah City only beat us 2.0,Liverpool only beat us 2.0 then expect to turn up and play winning football against Southampton you cant turn it on just like that,if we lose that game then we really are facing the drop.
    We are West Ham ,we are proud passionate proper fans who are always there week in week out and will be long after these clowns in charge have gone and the negative Moyes,
    COYI GSB OUT

  17. The concerning thing is seeing a newly appointed manager give up before the game on trying to beat a team. Ok City are one of the best in the world but we all know there weakness is against quick counter attacks against 2 or 3 players with pace.
    Moyes never went down this route because he feared it would leave our aging slow midfield wide open. But if he had started with Rice, Souckek and Fornals , then our midfield wouldnt be so slow. How many fouls did that midfield commit last night? I bet not many.
    Watch Wolves and Sheff Utd games there. The midfield bustles and hurries them into making a few mistakes. West Ham just sat back and stood there like cones. EMBARRASSING!!
    Haller, Anderson, Fornals not in squad. Lanzini and Bowen not in starting line up.
    EMBARRASSING.. Now Fredericks is out more or less for season. Done and dusted because its evident Moyes is trying to keep a clean sheet in every game now and not even focus on scoring.Bowen came on as cover for Zabby FFS.

  18. I didn’t like the team selection yesterday either but our defence stood reasonably well against one of the best offensive units in the world. The best money can buy, actually.
    Fournals should have been on instead of Noble, who coughed up the ball far to often and missed his mark on the second goal. Antonio prefers to play on the left and is an effective two-way player, so drop Masuaku and put Bowen up front.
    My guess is Bowen will play 30 minutes against LVP.
    Also like EFL, so relegation will not sting too much.

  19. Moyes is a joke no clue needs to go

  20. Well apart from the midfield isn’t the fastest in the league, it does mean we have to pack the midfield out.. for me the best opportunity came from Antonio cross from the right..
    And Fabianki near post let in wasn’t his best day, however he did pull off other saves. For me Cresswell stepped up his game and deserves credit.
    I know we have a few lads coming back from injury and I like Haller but in Germany he played with a strike partner.. so let me know your bets 11??

    3-1-4-2
    GK-Fabianski
    DF-Diop, DF-Ogbonna, DF-Cresswell
    DMF- Rice
    RM-Antonio, CM-Soucek, CM-Noble, LW-Snodgrass or Anderson
    ST-Haller, ST-Bowen

    Subs
    GK-Randoph
    DF-Ngakia
    MF-Anderson or Snodgrass
    MF-Fornals
    ST-Silva

    For me Haller needs service, two wide wingers that run at defence and Antonio is our biggest threat there. At the end of the day we all believe we can do better job picking a team.. but we need goals.. and with 1 on target last night isnt good enough.

  21. Moyes has got it terribly wrong that’s for sure,never known a more depressing time .pick the best team not a team to avoid a heavy defeat. I’m totally confused by Moyes logic.!

  22. It’s all very predictable tho isnt it?
    I joked before kick off Moyes would make his first attacking substitution in the 79th minute regardless of the scoreline

    😶

    The guy sets us up to try and stop them scoring. That’s it.

    He never makes proactive substitutions and rarely uses all his subs.

    We knew what we were getting with this appointment, which is why most fans were against it.

    Honestly these owners deserve to go down. Unfortunately us fans really dont.

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