Moyes frozen by indecision

Moyes frozen as Hammers luck runs out

David Moyes’s complaint that West Ham are struggling to play at home in the Premier League, at 2pm was as detailed as it was odd. There seemed to be so many parameters to his observation that I’m surprised he didn’t throw weather and planetary alignment into the mix.

The truth is that West Ham are struggling irrespective of location, competition, time of day, and the position of Uranus. We were poor against Backa Topola, Nottingham Forest, and Burnley, where we managed to sneak winners.

Our luck ran out against Palace, and we got a deserved point. However, with a £400M squad and Palace missing their two best players, we really shouldn’t be struggling for performance in the way we were.

Watching Moyes shuffling his pack was painful to watch. Despite the clear tactical conundrum, the manager couldn’t quite bring himself to substitute any of his favourite players, so he just moved them around within the confines of his trusted system.

Once again, West Ham waited until the 77th minute to actually go for the jugular. Only on this occasion, Tomas Soucek wasn’t there to rescue us, and Roy Hodgson was ready for the blitz. It really does make me wonder what we could achieve if the shackles were taken off earlier during the game.

It really can’t be fun for the likes of Lucas Paqueta and Jarrod Bowen playing within a system with so little imagination. It’s ironic that on the day news leaked of an increased stadium capacity, West Ham served up a spectacle highly likely to empty any arena.