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The Moyes effect starts to show

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David Moyes inherited a total mess and found himself and the decision to appoint him being roundly condemned by a section of fans when he arrived at the London Stadium for the second time.

But in reality – like the last time – given the we see a resumption of the campaign, the signs are that once again he will steer us away from the relegation zone.

It took him a time to sort the defence after that Bournemouth win in his opening game and the results weren’t the best with the 3-3 against Brighton maybe being the most depressing of them.

After beating the Cherries and overcoming a difficult Gillingham FA Cup tie, we were unluckily, perhaps, beaten at Sheffield United, drew with Everton ahead of those incredibly tricky games against Leicester, Liverpool, Man City and Liverpool again.

It was no time to make judgements of the guy but the Liverpool, Saints and Arsenal games produced much hope. Given everything  I reckon he’s done a decent job given the terrible problem he inherited. He needed time and that was in short supply.

I believe that should the season get underway again Moyes has us in decent nick.

Obviously, some will take a different view but the lack lustre approach of the team under Pellegrini has been turned around and two up has made a huge difference.

Previously, when at the club he turned Marko Arnautovic into our weapon. This time he – I think has and will do it again – by teaming up Antonio and Haller.

Make no mistake either, under this manager and his team – where I am convinced Kevin Nolan has made a big impact – we will again become an outfit with which to be reckoned .

Perhaps we are too quick with our judgements – myself included – but I am coming to the conclusion he was the right manager at the right time and all will be well when we are back in business.

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

8 comments

  • zahama says:

    I think one problem among fans is to label managers so BFS, Tony Pulis and Moyes are regarded as the same, when in fact they are quite different – while Moyes has publicly stated he will only use playesr who are prepared to run, he has also shown a liking for flair players e.g. in his first spell with us Lanzini (pre-injury) and Joao Mario. I think he is still hoping for something from Anderson. While the results have not been great we should remember that individual errors can alway happen (Fabianski vs Liverpool, Issa Diop vs Brighton, Steven Gerrard for Liverpool vs Chelsea to allow Demba Ba to score). I feel that the performances are certainly better than under Pelle and he ahs brought a sense of organisation
    Perhaps his methods take time to get results – I seem to remember Everton often starting seasons slowly and then coming strong at the end

    I agree Hugh that we are seeing progress – so I just hope that we manage to stay up after all the uncertainty of the season and Corona – and if we do I believe that we could see some mid table stability next season (say that we get to 40 points by the end of March 2021) and give it a real go in the Cups

  • PAUL GARNER says:

    i totally agree
    i think if he pursues his young hungry players we can be a very good side
    mix the few players he has bought so far with our youth players and weve cracked it
    lower wages structure and all players who have to prove themselves and want to play for us
    brilliant idea

  • PAUL GARNER says:

    i totally agree

  • Trevor says:

    With the correct tactics and substitutions at the right time we could of beaten Liverpool and Arsenal. We shouldn’t have to settle for second best anymore, both games were winnable and we went not to lose, the mentality has to change otherwise we will never achieve anything.
    Moyes may well keep us up more by default, we clearly have better players than the competition in the bottom half, who bought Soucez and Bowen? if it was Moyes I applaud him but I expect it was Sullivan hence Moyes taking his time to play the very ready and talented Bowen.
    Stay up and bring in a young manager with fresh ideas to bring a new sense of optimism to the club.

  • George Green says:

    The midfield acquisitions look good and the away performances at Aresenal and Liverpool encouraging.
    Wins in the PL in two months and a week =2
    Wins in the last 30ndays of Pellen(without the option of Fabs/Randloph in goal) = 2
    Hardly an earth shattering improvement.

  • Adrian Vass says:

    Most sensible comments I have heard all year. Thank you

    • Simon M says:

      Good, positive thoughts indeed sir.
      However, I cringe at the thought of Moyes playing Masuaku, Roberto, Sanchez or Jack Sprat.
      Even Mark Nobs and Haller must be used sparingly. We now have Tomas to cement the mid and Jarrod to get us goals.
      However, wish Moyes could get one or 2 more und23’s in, esp some on fire scorers. And please stop the exit of these fine players … our future.
      Coyi. God bless West Ham.

  • Neil from Down Under says:

    Hear Hear Hugh Southern!!

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