It did not look good for the mighty Irons in the first half with another lacklustre display having scoreless draw written all over it WRITES MICHAEL TALBOT.
It didn’t look good for the Irons ….but
But credit must go to Moyes for the rejig that paved the way for West Ham to secure a win that moved them above the Scot’s old side and into sixth place. Having disappointed for an hour, West Ham were sharper when Paquetá moved into the middle, Bowen went right and Kudus shifted to the left.
Moyes was happy to take the post-match praise. West Ham’s strong finish meant he could argue that he was right to rest players when his side lost to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup last Wednesday.
Ultimately it did not matter that they initially struggled to take advantage of an injury crisis that meant United had to replace the unwell Raphaël Varane with Willy Kambwala, the 19-year-old French centre-back, and pair the debutant with the 35-year-old Jonny Evans.
After a lot of huffing and puffing with Bowen isolated through the middle and unable to hold the ball up the solution arrived. It was in moving Paquetá away from the left flank and using him as a false nine.
West Ham were then far more dangerous without a fixed point in attack. With only 20 minutes to go, Bowen dribbled inside, found Paquetá and kept running. Finally, some ingenuity.
Paquetá’s scoop was beautiful and took Mainoo out of the game. With Shaw failing to cover, Bowen was free to take the ball in his stride and force the rebound in with a knee after Onana blocked his initial effort.
The Mancs never looked like staging a comeback and the game was up when Mainoo lost possession to Kudus, who swapped passes with Paquetá before swerving to the right and driving a wonderful strike beyond Onana.
One final observation though, we are a completely different side when we push up and the crowd becomes a 12th man. Moyes needs to learn that we are good enough NOT to be negative.