Defensive Moyes just can’t help himself

Defensive Moyes reinforced his backline rather than use attackers

West Ham 0-2 Fulham

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by West Ham’s lack of ambition against Fulham, but I’m certainly frustrated.

At 1-0 down but with the chance to leapfrog Newcastle into 6th position in the Premier League, David Moyes made the decision to bolster his defence. At a time during the game when his team desperately needed a goal, the manager chose to ignore Maxwel Cornet, George Earthy, and Divin Mubama who were warmed up and ready to go.

Instead, on the 68th minute, he made like-for-like substitutions. Moyes chose to swap Vladimir Coufal and James Ward-Prowse for Ben Johnson and Tomas Soucek. Bizarrely, Coufal was one of the few players having a decent game, but that can be excused, I guess.

I wouldn’t have minded if Moyes had thrown Soucek into the attack and we started launching long balls into Fulham’s box. But he didn’t; he deployed the big midfielder in… erm… midfield.

Man in a muddle: Moyes couldn’t help himself against Fulham

It was a truly baffling decision, and shortly afterwards, Fulham scored their second. Only at that point did Moyes bring on George Earthy, who immediately started making forward passes. Unfortunately for George, he suffered a sickening injury, and his day was cut concerningly short.

However, that shouldn’t mask the poor decision-making by Moyes, who should have introduced Earthy at halftime. The Hammers’ manager is a victim of his own lack of ambition and poor squad management.

If Hughie were here, he’d be on the phone to me now, saying precisely the same thing. This fixture was a crucial one for West Ham’s Europa hopes. Unfortunately, once again, Moyes just couldn’t help himself.