Moyes gets it spot on but knows the job’s not done
It doesn’t need saying that Norwich City are a poor side but one can never be sure which West Ham will turn up and today it was a side full of character, enterprise and quality.
The manager should be handed a lot of credit for that as he got most everything right and surprised us by handing Mark Noble a role which could extend his career given his performance today.
The form of Lanzini. Anderson and Yarmolenko’s low profile display when starting against Burnley saw the manager push the captain into a more forward role and without any need to chase back given the presence of Rice and Soucek it suited the captain down to the ground.
With two assists and some fine forward momentum plus a great Mikey Antonio performance, the manager got most all of it right on a day when he knows he had to.
And afterwards – talking at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/july/11-july/david-moyes-lets-keep-these-standards-high he said: “That was a really good performance. We scored four, and really, if we’d have scored seven or eight, I’d probably have been thinking that was about right.
“The clean sheet was all-important as well, because keeping them to none always gives you a chance. Even when it’s 2-0, you don’t want them to get a goal; even when it’s 3-0, you don’t want them to get a goal, so I have to praise them for that, but ultimately we made a lot of opportunities today and probably should have scored more.
“There aren’t many players in the Premier League who get to score four goals. I have to say he [Antonio] probably had one of his best days in training yesterday. I can smile about it, but it’s a big thing about training well, being good at what you do, and you hope you take it into the games and it leads you into good performances.
“It’s a message for all the West Ham players: let’s keep training well, let’s keep the standards high, and let’s keep trying to get positive results.”
“He’s actually improved even from when he’s started [playing as the lone striker], because we were always looking to get him in behind but now we’re able to get him a bit more into feet, set things up and play off him.
“Because of his pace and his threat and his power, nobody really wants to play against him, so he’s become a good threat for us.”
Pic courtesy www.whufc.com
“Nobes played really, really well today,” Moyes observed. “I’ve got to say all the central midfield players did a great job today, because Norwich look to play through you and try and pass through, so we had to make sure we were in good positions, intercepting and trying to win the ball back, and then play it forward quickly.
“I thought Nobes epitomised that really. I thought his attitude, his leadership, his demands on the players – what he wants from them as well – is a great help for the manager.”
He added: “The job’s not done, that’s for sure. The big picture is that we have to be a Premier League team when the supporters come back hopefully at the start of next season. If that’s available, we have to give them Premier League football.
“We’re trying to improve, we want to try and keep improving the players, push them on, more demands on them all the time, and today, they were very good – they did everything that was asked of them.”