Outspoken David Moyes has been telling it as it is since he arrived at West Ham and is no mood to pull his punches over record signing Marko Arnautovic.
The Hammers boss has been regularly telling the players they need to take responsibility but has singled out the former Stoke player as a particular example of what he expects.
The West Ham boss was quoted on BBC Sport as saying: “I can only go on what people tell me and they didn’t think he has come up to the standard he set at Stoke.”
And he added: “He has to be a team player, and the clips I have seen at times he’s not looked a team player. He wouldn’t be the only one. They’ve got to be the ones who take a lot of responsibility for what their actions are now.
“They can’t always be saying ‘the manager doesn’t do this or the manager doesn’t do that’, come on let’s see what you can do yourself.”
Arnautovic poses as a difficult character to deal with.
He has a bad temper, tends to blame others for his own mistakes, and this means that any discussions from the gaffer have to very carefully considered.
Let’s hope that Moyes has given him some positive criticism, as well as reminding /warning him that he has to ‘lift his game’. If Moyes is too harsh on Arnie, it has the chance of back-firing, leading the player to continue playing badly, just out of spite! On the other hand, if he isn’t sufficiently critical, then Arnie may feel that there are no problems with his current poor form! Potentially (for Moyes), he is stuck between ‘a rock and a hard place’. Let’s hope that whatever was exchanged, that Moyes was able to find the perfect Goldilocks happy medium!!
Difficult to see what has happened to Arnautovic since joining West Ham . He was a decent player at Stoke , that’s why we signed him . But the same could be said of several players .
The only common denominator seems to be Bilic and his training staff . I would like to see Arnautovic given a chance to prove himself and show us the true player we signed .
Yes but he was also showed up when he wanted to at Stoke & was decent players w 7 & 6 not mind blowing numbers but good
Even his teammates says he plays when he wants if Moyes or Someone could get him playing consistent & more as a team players bc he likes to have the ball. He could be worth the money but for me when we were spending that kind of money on him it was as big of a gamble or bigger then bringing in someone from Bundesliga for Creativity at half the price
I hope he works out & can get him playing bc he is talented & selling him now would just be a huge lose financially.