By Mike Walters, Daily Mirror Sports Writer
Beggars can’t be choosers. West Ham are in the bottom three for a reason: They are not very good.
Some of the metropolitan snootiness which greeted David Moyes’ appointment to replace Slaven Bilic has conveniently overlooked the Hammers’ predicament. After sailing close to the wind last season, the prospect of 25,000 crowds rattling around inside the London Stadium when Burton or Barnsley visit Stratford on a Tuesday night in the Championship is still very real.
Moyes may not be the Hollywood solution to that nightmare scenario, but who did you think West Ham were going to get if Super Slav walked the plank – Carlo Ancelotti? Roberto Mancini? The Dalai Lama?
Come off it, amigos. When the Premier League table reads like a threatening letter, you have to pay the ransom.
Moyes floundered at Manchester United, but whoever took over from the Gorbals growler was always going to be on a hiding to nothing. His biggest mistake at Old Trafford was to dispose of Sir Alex Ferguson’s backroom staff where continuity might have served him better.
We can write off Moyes’ ill-starred stopover in Spain, where he was the squarest peg in the roundest hole at Real Sociedad.
And as for Sunderland, not just a basket case but a whole wicker factory, he was the latest in a long sequence of prominent managers – Martin O’Neill, Steve Bruce, Paolo Di Canio, Gus Poyet and Dick Advocaat among them – to struggle in the quicksands.
Moyes made a rod for his own back at the Stadium of Light by admitting, two games into last season, that they were destined for a relegation battle, and his pessimism became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Notably, on the day he slipped into the cockpit at Rush Green, he was making only positive noises about his task.
But for 11 years Moyes did a decent job at Everton, taking them into the Champions League qualifiers in 2005 on a modest budget.
Do we discount a decade of competence completely because the last four years haven’t gone according to plan?
Whatever happens over the next six months, Moyes should be under no obligation to serve up football from archives of the ‘West Ham way’ – whatever that means.
He inherits a squad in the bottom three. His only prerogative – at the expense of all else – should be to finish the season at least one place higher.
For what it’s worth, the last time I watched West Ham in the flesh – against Swansea – they looked short of a gallop (not fit enough) and unsure whether Andy Carroll was a target man or a luxury they couldn’t afford.
When Everton were at their most obdurate under Moyes, they often brought as much muscle to the party as finesse, but Tim Cahill, Ayegbeni Yakubu and Marouane Fellaini all served him well.
Thankfully, it is unlikely he will fall into the trap of trying to put the band back together in January for a reunion tour.
Moyes’ best bet will be to channel the Hammers’ good intentions through Manuel Lanzini, their most creative player, and show more faith in Javier Hernandez than he did at Manchester United, where Chicharito started only six Premier League games in 2013-14, the season where Moyes took the Red Devils from champions to seventh.
Despite his lukewarm reception among East enders, few of us in the Fourth Estate have axes to grind with Moyes. Good luck to the fellow.
But without being mischievous, have the Two Daves and Her Ladyship missed a trick?
If Premier League survival is paramount, and the flowery stuff can follow later, there was a manager out there who has delivered on that manifesto with half a dozen clubs already.
Now we’ll never know if Big Sam 2.0 would have saved West Ham.
The views expressed here are those of the blogger and are not necessarily shared by ClaretadHugh
I would say that if it was just a six month appt then definitely Sam Allardyce would have kept us in the division, in a lot of ways Moyes has it easy we aren’t expecting him to do much so the bar is pretty low. I am curious to see what he can do in a lot of ways he has it very tough, the team are clearly not fit enough and disorganised to boot, if he can get them playing in a system and gradually build the fitness, as many have said there are goals throughout the team, defenders like Reid, Cresswell etc were very good defenders under Sam but they were helped out by midfielders rushing to get behind the ball and a whole team putting their bodies on the line to keep the ball out when needed. We have a lot of players that are unfamiliar with that, if he can teach Fernandes how to do that and tackle we have a ready made replacement for Noble, if not why not play Lanzini in Noble’s place, Noble doesn’t make many tackles and those that he does make often result in bookings and free kicks in dangerous positions. Although Noble is a true Hammer I hope that Moyes can find someone to replace him in the first team and improve us as a unit, I also hope he makes Zabaletta captain because I am fairly sure he will help to increase the intensity of the players. Anyone have any idea what they think the first team might look like under Moyes ?
Wow… Klopp sees Lanzini as a potential replacement for Coutinho, while you see him as a replacement for Noble!
I’m also reluctant to make a player who, by his own admission, only has another season or two in him, the captain – in any event, PabZab will do what PabZab does, whether he wears the captain’s armband or not.
I’d hoped that Pedro could become the defensive midfielder that would help screen our defence – and he still might, but this could well be one of those positions where a new signing might be necessary. (There’s next to no chance that Fernandes could ever fulfil that role).
He plays better in that position than his supposed no 10 prep, he creates more and starts more attacks, he also intercepts more balls than Noble, I think of him more like a Modric than a Noble when I say he should replace Noble I mean in the team, Noble under Bilic was on his last legs.
Yes out Mid needs help I still have faith in Obiang he snow d up big last season but Bilic never Fancied him almost got sold.
I’m trying to be positive the few 20m we have looked good we have played as a team.
If Moyes can instill some confidence and we play as team we will be ok
Sorry one place higher not good enough. The very least he should finish where Slaven was expected to