Expectations were high especially with Liverpool suffering some injury problems and the manager with his best West Ham team available.
It’s too easy to say that he didn’t have them ready and wound up despite the fact that it looked that way.
When push came to shove we simply could get sufficient possession to make any real impact – we aren’t the first team to suffer such a fate against this team and we won’t be the last.
It’s all too go easy to go looking for scapegoats when things go reels of cotton. The reality was there was little more the manager could do other than to think far more laterally when it came to his subs.
Yarmolenko – let’s be honest, scares few whilst Noble and Fredericks appeared to have been thrown on for the sake of it as time ran out in order to ensure things didn’t look too bad at the end.
It was predictable and dull and it was left to Dawson – and let’s be fair – he is very much a Moyes “discovery” who grabbed the goal to make things look decent.
Mikey Antonio again looked tired at the end and there was a chance to give young and apparently well rated Ademipo Odubeko a run-out.
That it didn’t happen was no surprise but at the very least it would have given a little added interest to a game that was clearly gone.
Moyes rating 6
Hindsight is great but a lot of fans were calling for a change in formation today to 3-5-2, he got it wrong at the start, at HT he had to change it as we were being over powered in midfield. Very poor tactical today from Moyes just like a few games over the Christmas period. He has no imagination, a casing example he expects Rice and Soucek to play every minute of every game. Why take Fornals off today when both midfielders could not get close to the Liverpool midfield. Then to bring on Fredericks and Noble and leave Lanzini (his contribution to the team this year like the leveler against Spurs has had a huge impact and influence on the way the team has gelled together) and Mipo on the bench – very sad to see that today. In the cup we were brilliant, played really well with Benrahma, Lanzini and Fornals in behind Yarmo, Moyes really needs to freshen things up for the Villa game, go 3 at the back, play Fornals as an 8 beside Rice. We need to see a positive reaction from the manager now. He was awful today and today I think he was well below that – for me it was a 4.
To me it looked we were playing containment football. At half time it looked like a point was our ambition and we were succeeding. In the second half we were beaten by 2 moments of brilliance and another of just bad defending. Moysey’s substitutions left me nonplussed, bringing on defensively minded players when you’re 2-0 down at home?
Nevertheless, other results have been kind and I can’t bring myself to whinge too much when we’re sitting in 5th on 35 points.
Just put it down to a bad day at the office and a missed opportunity to be ambitious.
I would give him 5 we were ok nothing more, he was outsmarted but have every faith he will learn COYI!!!
Agree with johnham1 in the most part and “4” is a true assessment. No not hindsight !!! You only had to listen to Moyes’ interview on Sky before kick off to affirm the ‘hindsight’ as his own prediction… Far too much respect for a makeshift team that should have been exploited from the first whistle, instead of the submissive approach we adopted, in the first half especially ! and the subsequent changes he made did nothing but affirm the aforementioned
There is always more than one expert after a losing game with the help of hindsight who will tell you how they would have managed the game differently but the fact is before the game I thought he was right to play the same winning team and formation. We’d just won six games back to back. I thought he was right to bring noble on in this game and could see why he did it because noble can pass and keep hold of the ball and it freed up Soucek to get further forward. I understood all the changes. Fact is we couldn’t keep hold of the ball and get our passing game going because of the strong Liverpool press and it would have been the same probably whatever the tactics and whatever the team we put out there.
I would prefer we played 3 at the back but cannot fault sticking to the previously successful shape. The team looked nervous, and unwilling to take them on.
The goal following our corner, with Dawson inexplicably at the centre line instead of attacking, made me pop an aneurysm. Otherwise, as Phil M said, a bad day at the office.
5
Absolutely agree with a 4 or 5, we seemed to approach the match on the defensive, just the mental state of the team appeared timid and Moyes himself looked tense throughout,Rice also so wound up right from kick off without the composure and timing we have been used to seeing from him. Tactics from our manager were just not positive enough and there seemed a “just keep it going” attitude at start of 2nd half. Thought, however our centre backs were brilliant again albeit that elsewhere on the pitch, we just gave away too much space to opposition! P.S. Perhaps can somebody just ask David Moyes to show a more positive expression on his face throughout – not just after the final whistle!
I’ve had a season ticket since 1958 and quite frankly have seen many games like this where they have failed to deliver when the odds were in their favour. This type of performance even happened in the Moore, Hurst and Peters days. Some sort of mist comes over the team and they all end up having, putting it politely, an off day. We had a fair amount of the ball but the same old story as we kept giving it away. I don’t think we played a lot different to a lot of games this season in as such some players keep giving the ball away cheaply or making bad passing decisions but we have got away with it, but you can’t against teams like Liverpool who will pounce on any little mistake. The players need to know when to hold or when to pass. We need a midfield player that can hold a ball to allow others to get into positions and not treating the ball like a hot potato. Sometimes watching the team knocking the ball about is like watching a training session, all one or two touch and get rid of it and getting nowhere. Anyway I do hope this lot learn from this game and put it down to a one off and get back to winning ways as we don’t want to waste what the teams achieved already.