West Ham former hero and exclusive CandH blogger Ray ‘Tonka’ Stewart gives his view on last night’s victory at Wolves.
David Moyes is going to start earning his money big time over the last few weeks of the season with injuries looking to become a real problem.
Last night it was Declan missing and for Leicester it seems more than probable that Mikey Antonio will be on the sidelines.
One of two left the pitch limping so everything crossed there are no other big problems in the dressing room with further injuries.
But I really think David Moyes has some issues and this is where he will need to be at his absolute best.
I thought he had a really good game but the manager will need to look at other options if Declan’s injury problem continues for longer than expected.
It was a shame to see Mikey go off because he too was having a great impact on the game – it was his best for a while but he clearly has that hamstring issue which is another problem for the boss.
What last night showed in spades was that the Hammers squad is capable of overcoming the worst scenarios but for a long time I half hid behind the sofa praying against another Arsenal .
Lingard was clear man of the match and to see the manager with his arm around him when he came off told me all I need to kmow and if all goes well he will be a permanent Iron next season.
Tonka was talking to Hughie Southon
A great pity Pellegrini sold Pedro Obiang. He was reliable back up as a defensive midfielder, and would have been a good replacement for Declan Rice over the next few weeks.
In my view, Moyes is already earning his money. To have taken a completely dysfunctional set up inherited from Pellegrini in January of one season to top four with eight games to go of the following season is remarkable. It’s less important for me to see how reliant we currently are on the players we’ve lost in the last few days than it is that we improve year-on-year – which West Ham rarely, if ever, have done in the past – over the course of a number of transfer windows. If we’re going to establish ourselves as a top side, we’ve got to take a much longer term view than what happens over the course of the next eight games.
Only problem is that the outcome of the next eight matches could determine whether the likes of Rice Soucek and Lingard will still be at the club next season. If they are determined to play European football then they may want to move away to get it
Crunch time has arrived. I’ve been one of the many worrying about the size and depth of the squad. Now we’ll see how reliant we are on the likes of Decs and Mikey for the next few games