Former Hammer Trevor Sinclair is baffled as to why David Moyes didn’t sign a striker in January.
The former West Ham player told Jim White on talkSPORT: “You’ve made your bed, for me, and I go back to the striking options. As we already know, there is history in this. Michail Antonio; he struggles to play every game, especially with the fixture pile-up we have got now and he wasn’t able to make the squad for the night. When he isn’t playing, then who plays? It’s one of the most difficult positions to learn and master on the pitch.
“It’s alright saying I am a forward, but actually playing that No.9 role when you have to hold the ball up, bring other players into play, you’ve got to know when to stretch the opposition at times to give yourself a chance to get out.
“If the ball is bouncing off you and you are giving possession away, you just don’t have a foothold in the game.”
Sinclair also questioned whether David Moyes needed Jesse Lingard by saying:“Talking about Jesse Lingard, I’m not so sure,” he added. “I know David Moyes has worked with him before.
“He is a good player, or he has been in the past. But you look at his record; 2017/18 – 33 games and eight goals in the Premier League.
“In 18/19 he had 27 and four, then you go to 19/20 and he only played 22 games and scored one goal.
“So, for me, I don’t think he is necessary.”
Claret and Hugh Says:
David Moyes had money available to spend but decided the quality on offer for his budget was not good enough. He also decided against dipping into the foreign loan market instead of going for Jesse Lingard hinting he could play in a false nine formation if required. The manager makes the decisions and we should back him, Sinclair never seems to have anything nice to say about West Ham these days nor are we ever aware that he has ever managed a club – of any note anyway. He doesn’t seem to like the owners and now he appears to be criticising the manager. Perhaps he is bitter that he has not been offered an ambassador role or work with the club. He seems to like the sound of his own voice which is all he appears to have on offer as he regularly uses the media to criticise. Sad!
Like him or not ,like so so many others I have to agree with him …….I know i know, trust In moyes but its still being talked about so much because it was such a terrible decision not to address it …and it is already coming back to haunt us ….I think Moyes would do better to come out and say he has made a terrible mistake because people would stop going on about it then …it was my main moan for several weeks ,,just ask hugh .. ,,but only now with all the injuries ,its being spoken about even more ..
He clearly loves West Ham what are you talking about. Not only that he is absolutely right in his assessment. We could go 4th Monday and we’re rarely in that position and its being undermined by the board and/or moyes.
Sad ? I would totally agree with him, are we not the first prem team not to employ a striker ? Doesn’t seem to like the owners, like most people then. GSB out.
I think that everybody – including Moyes – wanted to buy a striker – but Moyes has made it clear that he woudl only buy a striker who he really wanted
Man Utd away is a very tough FA cup draw – remember it is this month that they thrashed Southampton 9-0
Our recent form is very good so let us see how we do against Sheffield Utd before criticising Moyes
COYI
Totally disagree with this summation of Sinclair, he’s one of a few pundits on national radio who’s pro Hammers in the main, as we know our board are Marmite to most, so no quip there.
He, like many other supporters would like to have seen an out and out striker arriving during the transfer window. We have released or sold in the past two seasons, Arnie, Perez, Hernandez, Carroll, Ajeti, Haller.
If we are going to deploy a false nine, we will need to become a better passing team, a change of tactical nouse that I’m sure that we can accommodate.
Everybody is entitled to his own opinion, some people even get paid for expressing theirs!
Naughty boy… mustn’t say anything nasty about the board or manager. Even if it is more or less the same thing that every supporter had said before the Villa game.
The fact we didn’t sign a striker will come back to haunt us
I think hes made a valid point , we looked lost against Man utd with Yarmo up top and now hes injured lets hope that Moyes pulls something out the bag otherwise all the progress we’ve made this season will go down the pan.
I don’t think it’s Moyes fault though he didn’t get any of the strikers he wanted and I don’t blame him for turning down strikers or wasting money on strikers that aren’t up to scratch. The owners have done that too many times in the past, bowing to pressure to buy a striker, any striker and what we’ve ended up with is sub standard strikers that are hard to get rid of. It’s easy for the owners to say oh well we offered the Haller money but Moyes didn’t want to spend it. Fact is you’re not going to get much of a striker for twenty million these days. So I don’t blame Moyes for waiting till the summer when the right players are available, the ones he really wants.
What a stupid article, slagging off a West Ham legend for having an opinion that every West Ham supporter with half a brain would agree with?
Well given you have decided you know what everybody with half a brain must think I assume you have half a brain
Sad? Was there ever a situation where the club sells its only fit striker without replacing him? And still people are not allowed to question the board.
No you aren’t unless you know what happened between them and Moyes without assuming the worst because you don’t like them. And those who don’t agree with you are allowed an opinion too and you are wrong!
What are you talking about? You’ve literally labeled Trev’s opinion as “sad” while I never said your “opinion” was “wrong”. I do believe Moyes wasn’t able to get the right player but I refuse to believe he sanctioned Haller’s sale knowing we might end up not signing a replacament.
Sean Whetstone wrote it . Try to stop raging long enough to find the words Author Sean Whetstone- oh and by the way if your idea of a legend is bloke sentenced to community service for racially abusing police officer after arrest for drink-driving and being sacked by the BBC good luck with that. His continual criticism of the club is sad and thus justifies the headlinea. What do we call Mooro, Brooking etc if he’s a legend
Sad Sinclair, what are you 7?
Leave the petty name calling in the playground, just because the Former POTUS speaks like that, doesn’t make it any less childish.
The guy has a point, gets paid to express that point and has been waxing lyrical about how well we have done at times. Did you write this after listening to him once?
Didn’t write it – maybe you should have gone to Specsavers
Petty name calling is fun silly boy
I’m sick of former players trying to get clicks and make money off of our club . He doesn’t speak for the majority of west ham fans , not by a long shot !
The very vocal minority.
I can understand from your rudeness that you have learned much from the POTUS and obviously on Twotter. Good night
Strange that Trevor Sinclair should think that every team should have a centre forward playing in a rigid style. Many teams don’t seem to have this player or style and seem to manage very well. The starting line up should probably be numbered one to eleven and play where their number is expected to appear. History tells us that Jackie Milburn was typical of this system and also very successful. Times have changed. Leicester are once again in a false position at the top of the Premier League. False because they play to their strengths and not to the coaching handbook. We will do the same as Leicester in this regard and given time perhaps we will be topping the PL.
Curious thinking but realistic too. Dinosaurs were a tad deliberate and predictable – so historians say.
Nice summing up Sean.
COYI
Yes, wouldn’t it have been wonderful to have signed a good striker in January.
Sadly though, none were available – none that our manager wanted anyway. There are many many teams looking to sign strikers at the moment and there appears to be very few genuinely good ones about, because so few are being signed.
What do these supporters want – that we should sign any old dross just to say that we’ve signed a striker? Ridiculous.
What we wanted wasn’t available in January, so we’ll have to wait until summer.
That’s the long and short of it.
I don’t understand the all of a sudden wanting European football. I get from an ambition point of view we all want the team to do well but we do not have a squad capable of playing in four competitions. The last 10 years have shown that unless you have a squad the size of one of the big boys when you get to Europe you typically have a really bad season in the league. We are not going to be in a position to sign the amount of players needed, the financial implications of Covid are massive. Yes we didn’t get a striker, yes it’s disappointing but there is no point signing someone unless they are better or as good as what you already have. Why can’t we be happy that we are making progress and see what the season brings. Lingard might be terrible playing the false nine role or he might be great. Too many contradictions flying about. When we had Haller people wanted Yarmolenko up front, when that didn’t work they wanted mipo. Let’s just enjoy the season and get behind the manager and team.
Seeing it is David,Moyes who has got us to where are in the league this season its a bit rich at this stage to question his judgement!
Always easy to manage from comfort of a sofa!