It’s becoming quite apparent, rather quickly, that David Moyes is cut from a different cloth to many plying their trade as managers.
One comment from him – which went virtually unnoticed recently – was his response to all the transfer window chat and rumour mongering when saying: “My only focus at this moment is concentrating on improving the group I have here.”
That came after a couple of reminders that he really did have a talented bunch of players at his disposal and relegation wasn’t in his thoughts.
Now okay, I will not get get carried away on the back of a couple of vastly improved performances but it’s clear already that this isn’t a guy who speaks for the benefit of microphones.
He really does appear to mean what he says and the improvement of which he spoke is now clearly apparent – he is already maybe be changing a lot of minds about himself – he certainly is mine.
That Marko Arnautovic is now putting in a shift and a half, that Arthur Masuaku is being used correctly and that Michail Antonio, of all people, finished his game early flat on his back exhausted, shows what’s happening on the training ground.
Improvement is underway very quickly and boy it’s showing. Yesterday in another throw away remark he said he wants to be playing like Chelsea at some stage – I’m beginning to look at these little messages far more closely than previously because he doesn’t appear to do a lot of manager talk. Refreshing!
There was also a telling moment for me when Antonio did finally rise from the turf and headed for the dug out/tunnel.
We have become a little too used to manager player love-ins with hugs, kisses, pats on the backside and head etc. There was nothing of the sort from Moysie. Just the briefest of hand shakes whilst he continued to concentrate solely on what was happening on the pitch.
It indicated clearly what he’s about – team management – and treating players for what they are; very highly paid employees who don’t need to be showered with affection and thanks for what they should be doing.
I’m becoming more and more confident about the future.
COYI
I have to admit, I was a major Moyes skeptic. However the two recent “team” performances v Citeh and Chelski have been very different from anything else this season. We are playing as a team and for each other. We appear to be organised, fitter and therefore so much more competitive.
Hitting the ground running (literally!) and pressing in the early minutes yesterday earned us a deserved lead that we went on to defend with massive commitment. We always knew that they would out-possess us so that quick-fire start was great to see and did the job.
Well done, Moyes.
I wonder how the Arse will prepare for us now and how they will plan to deal with an exceptional, re-juvenated Masuaku.
I’m actually looking forward to Wednesday’s game with some hope!
Did we miss out on not sighning Charlie Austin ??
Point?
He’s knocking them in for Southampton .
Think it is yet another player who refused to come play for us at one point, so it is a sterile debate. Besides,he has spent a fair amount of time in the sick bay over the past three years, so you have to look at the bigger picture.
Masuaku played a blinder ,,, and so did the whole team in reality . It’s not ( as pundits would have you believe ) that Chelski were under par , it’s that West Ham played with commitment and determination .
If we can replicate that performance against the Gooners we could escape the bottom three before Christmas . Good on yah Moyes . We’re starting to look like a team at last .
COYHAMMERS .
Yes we played well and every player put in a proper shift but Chelsea were awful I thought,not 1 shot on target in second half
If you saw the same game as me ; it’s because we didn’t let them !!! .
Yes, interestingly, defending is part of the game too!!!!
we defended great but they had quite a few chances but couldn’t hit anything close to be on target,morata should have scored his chance
My heart stop beating for a minute I have to confess when that cross sliced our defence and nobody could get on the ball. The slightest deviation and it was goal. But besides that, I thought we were pretty much on it.
I think all the talk of players being tired by Conte was a dig at abramovich for not giving him the funds to buy more players to bulk up his squad, talk of players being tired really irritates most fans, who have to actually work for a living, these players only train for a couple of hours each day & get paid a fortune for it, so please Conte no more lame excuses the better team won give West Ham the credit they deserve
If you read about Moyes he forges teams, he gets the players to play for each other it’s not about the manager, they may even hate him but will run through walls for each other, I like most of us wouldn’t have had Moyes as a choice but when the decision was made started reading about him and listening to the testimonials of former players and it opened my eyes, perhaps one of those happy accidents, it is good for Moyes also, had we appointed him at the start of the season it might have proved a lot harder to win over the fans but as it is, we can see him breathing new life into the players and greatly improved performances well done Moyes COYI!!!
So it remains not about the manager? Kinda lost me there 32. He has surely created the envionment in which the porit of which you speak has them thriving? His team formation and tactics bring the results as well I would say 🙂
It is about the team for Moyes he forges them into a team but the point unlike under Slav if his former players are to be believed is that after a certain point the team can operate independent of his training methods and it is about performing for each other not specifically for the manager, they end up not wanting to let each other down so in the end work harder in a selfless manner, everyone will work tirelessly to get the result for their teammates. I am probably not explaining it very well but I know what I understand from what others have said it is that the team is one unit where all parts are equal and the individual is unimportant. Maybe by explaining it like this under Slav he had Payet and he believed that the players would respond to Payet and lift their level where in reality through a combination of poor coaching and an over reliability on Payet the reverse happened most players levels steadilly dropped, in a Moyes team the individual is unimportant the team is a whole and it works as such everybody is equal even if some may have more or less impact as such everybody works and everyone is equal, hopefully that explains it better, certainly Moyes will have an impact during matches but we can already see that we are already playing as a team so the proof of the pudding is in the eating and all that, in time we will all have our own opinions on the merits or not of that but I think it is the foundation of most good managers to get all their players united and working for a common outcome which at the moment is results and improvement 😀
Yeah, wot he said, coupled with the fact we haven’t got a feckin statue up top who can’t hold the ball up, run, shoot on target or score! No coincidence we’ve improved without Carroll!
I agree Moyes is right to focus on what he has now in the squad. I just hope that after a couple of promising games we don’t have yet another Gold or Sullivan interview along the lines of ‘We have been saying for months that this is a quality squad’. Cut to the sound of a wallet slamming shut! This is a thin squad. We all know the line about January being the wrong time to buy but there are exceptions to every rule. Whatever happens in the next few games we should be lining up several signings. Even if we continue to progress it will only take one of our usual run of injuries to create another crisis.
Just not having a Sullivan interview would be a start, Jose Fonte summed it up when he said Sullivan’s comments come from a place of ignorance, they are talking about getting a director of football, if they did I can think of one man perfect for the job, Trevor Brooking. He would be sensible enough to let Moyes get on with the management without interference but could be a great person to work alongside Moyes and Tony Henry when it came to identifying talent and building the club from grass roots, after all he made many excellent suggestions at the FA in regards to that.