By Dave Langton
Tomas looks like a man in need of a rest and got one
West Ham couldn’t have looked more tired against Arsenal .
The Hammers lost the game, going down 2-1 in what looks like a severe blow to their top-six hopes. Brentford may help us tonight at Old Traford!
However. with Eintracht Frankfurt now on the horizon, the second leg in Germany looks an even taller order for the Irons than it did last week.
Against the Gunners, there simply wasn’t any urgency, because the players didn’t have the stamina to actually run.
The stats show the reality – we have won only two of the last nine games. Sorry Moysie, that’s no coincidence as we reach the end of the season!
Jarrod Bowen looked sharp in the first half yesterday, as did Declan Rice, but it waned as the game went on and the Gunners kept the Irons at arm’s length throughout the second half.
In reality, the ball was just being passed in front of Mikel Arteta’s side, with no ability to penetrate their backline.
Mikey Antonio came on in the second half and looked more tired than some of the lads who started the game.
There isn’t the squad depth available to David Moyes to actually tinker and freshen things up and we have to look at the January transfer window as the root cause.
There was an option for Moyes to sign a player or two, just to reinvigorate the group, but he sat on his hands, and we’ve been left with a group of players who can barely move, let alone win football matches.
Nobody was expecting £100 million or more to be spent but a couple of loans to reinforce the squad?
We are climbing a major against Frankfurt, especially after home advantage was essentially squandered in the first leg last week.
It’s not impossible, but we can’t help but feel a bit downbeat about our chances. It needn’t have been like this.
The only person to blame is Moyes, some of his decisions are hard to understand. Dawson suspended yesterday so he decides to rest Soucek, terrible decision which basically cost us the game. How many times have I seen how bad decision by Moyes have cost us this season. Too many and he is ultimately the reason. I also worry about his transfer decisions, can we trust him when he wants to spend 50m on Phillip’s, he has made terrible signings 30m on Vlasic !! If we achieve nothing this season and end up finishing outside the top 6 he will claim it was a good season but I think it will be a very disappointing season.
I’m not so sure you can ‘blame’ Moyes, he doesn’t actually hold the purse-strings OR he has been conscientious with the funds so far. (£2.3mil. for Dawson???)
Resting Soucek after he’s looked shattered recently to give him a few extra days may be part of a bigger plan…?
And IMHO, no Soucek didn’t cost West Ham the game, Mike Dean and a lack of creativity against a 8 man defence, Arsenal cheating/fouling/time-wasting tactics (Along with fatigue) may have done it.
Moyes is responsible for picking the team, rotations and subs and what could be argued is that he has not sufficiently rotated his squad enough, or subbing players too late. While Alex Kral is a full international and has been highly rated, he’s barely had a look in, where are the U-23s players coming through?
Vlasic was Russian league Player of the season and hasn’t cost £30mil. £23.3 +++ maybe £33mil eventually…
Be happy there isn’t a relegation scrap and given the riches in the Prem/money spent, 7th & European Semi-final is a remarkable position/achievement …
What worries me is we loan young players out to Championship and league 1 clubs and they don’t exactly set the world alight. Ones we have sold disappear from view. Our Academy needs to up their game as at moment Moyes feels they are not up to the challenge of top class games. Also Moyes likes a small tight knit squad with big name players not warming the bench. We are light years ahead of just over two years ago so need to maintain the faith as prior to Moyes getting a grip on this club we were going nowhere fast.!
Downbeat? Speak for yourself Dave. I’m not at all downbeat. I do agree ,however, that he should have brought in a squad player or two if he didn’t believe any of the u23 players were good enough. However, hindsight is a wonderful thing and it might all be irrelevant if we win on Thursday. COYI.
Conscious decision by DM to keep playing the same players even when shattered, with internationals on the bench. Conscious decision also to not introduce young players – not this year or last year. Conscious decision to make no signings. Changing Souceks game another one. So now this summer he has a shedload to do – making it a massive break. This could all unravel or push onwards and upwards.
Moyes had good young Players he could have blooded and added to the squad, but no he seems to really dislike youngsters. We could have had Conor Coventry Alese, or many others. He sold Cullen a major mistake. Play the young and remember that is how United one things.