David Moyes could hardly have been more delighted with the way West ham went about their business last night.
The manager has taking plenty of knocking over the last few days – some from here – but credit where its due he got it spot on last night.
But chiefly he got a response from the players we have all been waiting for which ensured all the planning and selection issues came to fruition.
The masterstroke – as mentioned in a previous piece – was to replace Jarrod Bowen with Andriy Yarmolenko – a tough call given the January signing had helped set up two goals.
Manu lanzini looked better than he has done for some time and the manager dsecided to leave the disappointing Felip Amderson on the bench preferring when the time came to bring on Jack Wilshere who looked okay during his time on the pitch.
To the very end he got it right when bringing on Fabian Balbuema at the death to close the game down .
And speaking at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/july/01-july/moyes-hails-hammers-resilience-chelsea-win he said: “We’ve all been looking at the results, of course we are, but the biggest thing for me was that I didn’t think we’d been as bad as our results had suggested.
“We lost 2-0 in both games and I said that I thought that the teams we played had played well, and we had made mistakes and missed a couple of chances.
“We did say to the players that we had to change our luck, and we thought the luck could change and it maybe went our way tonight a little bit. We pushed hard, and we did a lot of good things. The players deserve a massive amount of credit.
“Tonight, we took most of our chances. Chelsea, with the team they have, made a number of chances as well. We were up against it at that time against Chelsea, at 2-2, but the players stuck at it and got a good result.”
He continued: “I know that Yarmo can score! He does it in training every single day so we know he’s capable of that. Jarrod had done his part in making goals earlier, so I felt the time was right to make the change there.
“Michail can change at different times but to play on his own and do what we ask him to do is a mammoth job. We’ve not got Seb Haller at the moment, but I think it would have been hard to play two up top against Chelsea anyway. I think even the really good teams find that hard.
“I just think we’ve done a good job and we were well organised, which we had to be. Thankfully we’ve got the three points.”
Moyes is targeting a further ten points from his side’s remaining six matches in order to be absolutely sure of the Hammers’ status in the Premier League.
He added: “It gets us to 30 points and the next target has to start with a four. If we can get to 40 points, then I’m sure we will be safe in the Premier League. We’ve still got to aim to get to that points tally and obviously that means winning another three games.”
Yarmolenko needs to be treated as a forward, as shown yesterday he may actually be the best finished we have, and as shown in the past, he isn’t suited to play on the wing.
We still let I. 2 goals, as usual, yesterday. This really really needs to stop ASAP.
To be fair though, yesterday it was a penalty and a perfect free kick. Diop will be gutted to have given away the penalty but I thought we didn’t give Chelsea that many opportunities at all and defended really well as a team.
Also I think we need to give some credit to Fredericks too. Doesn’t get much praise and rightly so quite often but yesterday was still overlapping Yarmolenko in the last 10-15 minutes of the game. This is what is needed from your full backs in today’s Premier League!
Agree completely.
Look I have been the first one to slag off Moyes and hold my hands up to that. But last night wasn’t the best but we played a lot better and was also helped by some poor defending, not taking anything away from our boys. We still keep giving cheap balls away which needs to stop and we need to push more people forward to help Antonio out but other than that all good
Hi . Very happy with the result which is all that matters at this time . Can’t help but think that the masterstroke was the enforced absence of Capt Noble . The tempo increased 10 fold and ball retention much better . It was the change that should have been made before Xmas when the lack of pace and mobility was apparent . Lets hope Moyes sees the light and keeps this team on the pitch for as long as new injuries permit . Ogbanna and Rice were immense but Fabianski seems to have gone backwards since his injury . Poor freekick goal to concede .
Personally I think it was a fantastic free kick! Don’t listen to Gary Neville. The quality of free kick takers these days means that it’s impossible to just assume the wall can do the job and that a GK only has to worry about one side of the goal. Willian could have gone either way easily.
Anyone remember where Rob Green used to stand for free kick assuming the wall could completely cover one side of the goal? Anyone remember how often he was proven wrong?
Sometimes the pivotal changes in a game or season are enforced changes and i have to admit that i for one was happy to see Noble was out injured.The guy is a Hammers Legend and i am not slagging him off for a second but at his age and the amount of games now being played its too much and we just looked much busier and more inventive obviously mainly on the counter attack with a more youthful midfield.
A brilliant performance by the boys and much more fluent I the mid field (sorry Mark I love you to bits as Mr WHU but maybe time m8)..but ìt will be hollow if we don’t get something of the Toon on Sunday. I will be contend with a work like performance (as yesterday ) and at least 1pr COYI
We have a better goal difference of 6 over Bournemouth and Villa too after yesterday which is worth 1 point if it comes down to maths at the end of the season but i honestly expect us to climb away now on the proviso that the standard set yesterday work wise is maintained.