2 Comments

From the mish mash comes an Irons pattern

By CandH’s top blogger Allen Cummings

 

David Moyes would be the first to warn against getting too carried away with what has been West Ham’s best start to a season in five years.

The manager is often portrayed as a dour scot who rarely appears to get too excited about events on the pitch. So when he recently told BBC Sport: “We are keeping our feet on the ground. We know exactly where we are” it was a typically understated response to a particular question.

He he did inject a little more of an upbeat tone when he added: “We know we are improving, we know we are doing a lot of good things. And we want to try and keep that going.”

In reality Moyes is reshaping this West Ham team from the mish-mash left by the previous incumbent Manuel Pellegrini, instilling his own values and priorities, preaching his own brand of football.

He inherited a team with some expensive imports who were failing to justify their price tags, a team playing without any real structure or obvious game plan.

There is now a distinct pattern emerging – a direction of travel that the players have embraced and bought into – and we as a club are now reaping the rewards .

All this has been achieved when football is operating in unchartered times and unprecedented waters. It’s been a time when old-fashioned man-management has come to the fore again.

At the same time David Moyes has been shaping West Ham into a team capable of more than just surviving, he’s been re-establishing his own credentials as a manager – and a home-grown manager at that.

There was a danger club’s were being lulled into thinking success would only come if a manager from abroad  or coach was at the helm. They were supposed to be the master tacticians, the real thinkers, the way forward for our game, or so we were told.

Maybe there is a growing realisation now that might not be the case. Frank Lampard at Chelsea (aided by Roman Abramovich’s millions of course) and Brendan Rogers with Leicester currently occupy two of the top four places in the Premier League. Dean Smith at Aston Villa and David Moyes make it four home-grown managers in the top eight.

Meanwhile Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City are 12th and 13th respectively, and Marcelo Bielsa, current flavour of the month with some, sits in 14th place with Leeds United.

The Premier League is a marathon not a sprint of course – we all know that. There is still a very long way to go in the season. But from where we’re sitting right now, West Ham and David Moyes, are enjoying life to the full!

 

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

2 comments on “From the mish mash comes an Irons pattern

  1. As games pass and injuries mount the table will start to appear as expected – the rich will bubble to the top. The rate of change will be amplified if we go to 5 substitutions. This has little to do with managerial skill.
    We will do better than predicted, in large part because of Moyes.

  2. Money will always play a huge part in the Premier League GaryD – that’s inevitable. But as you say West Ham’s improvement is down, in a large part, to David Moyes. Which is what the blog was about!

Comments are closed.