Moyes warm-up shows no stone being left unturned

By Niall McDonald

David Moyes’ new approach has been very much in evidence at Rush Green since his arrival and I was pleased to see it extending to the London Stadium last night where the even the warm-up was treated with great attention to detail.

Mr Moyes leaves no stone unturned and it was clear pre-match there were key changes to the more relaxed approach of the previous regime:

Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell and Zabaleta were on the far side, in a line, being directed by Stuart Pearce. Headers, touch passes, stepping up and back into position were being practised: Now not quite the old Arsenal offside trap scene from the Full Monty, but defenders were practising defending!

Closer up saw Andy Carroll and the midfielders set up in the middle of the pitch, the big man with back to goal as the group played short passes between themselves before one pushed into the box and took a shot on goal.

The only other side I’ve seen practise this way before the match are Man United – a complete  change from the Bilic/Dicks regime which was based on crosses from overlapping fullbacks cut back to the penalty spot; tactics which we rarely used in the game.

The third, and most interesting sight for me, was watching Mark Noble and Declan Rice (above right)  warm-up together, away from the other subs. Noble was chipping balls up towards Rice for him to head back or bring down and lay off. It was good to see the skipper working on things with the teenager he’d need to be doing in the match if called upon.

The whole set up was quite a turn around from the ‘knock it about a bit lads and then take some pot shots on goal to wrap up’ I’ve watched for the last few seasons.

Encouraging and professional – it will take a while but things are changing at West Ham!