After a summer featuring plenty of change and seemingly off pitch player disagreements at the London Stadium, West Ham United manager David Moyes has again overseen what is almost a pretty reasonable season when all things are considered.
However, there are those fans who rightly point to regular performance dips in games we would expect to take all three points from, and major domestic consistency issues. Having rectified three straight defeats with back to back wins in the five game form chart, it was Burnley up next on Sunday and given we are sat in seventh place and we should be quietly eyeing Europe again, whilst they were marooned on 13 points in bottom place, the result should have taken care of itself, but much like https://gamblenator.com/au/free-spins/120-free-spins can often go, it just was not our day.
We fell two goals behind before finding a better gear in the second half of the came, but it still took a stoppage time Danny Ings goal to secure the point and avoid embarrassment. It really should have been more with the chances we had, including the Video Assistant Referee scrubbing out a goal, and hitting the bar, and dare we even mention the Sander Berge handball for a penalty that was not given.
The problem was, despite our improvement in the second half, the first half went by without a shot on target, so we arguably got exactly what we deserved.
That will not calm or placate the section of the fan base who have already long felt that Moyes time with us should have already come to an end, and there continues to be radio silence on the fact his existing deal comes to a close this summer.
With plenty that the Scottish gaffer could pick out from the game, his biggest complaint was saved for something that he felt had gone completely unnoticed across the 90 minutes. Stating that despite having seen Ings’ offside goal back, he had not draw lines himself, and even though it was the second game in a row (Europa League in midweek) where we were denied a clear penalty, he decided post game to focus in on Jarrod Bowen.
As we all know, assistant referee’s with VAR have been told to keep the flag down unless it is absolutely obvious, and leave VAR to judge offsides. As we all know, it seems conveniently they do not always do that – as was the case when Bowen saw the flag go up even though replays showed he was not offside.
Moyes frustration was obvious, but he rightfully did not try and use it as an excuse for our ultimate failure to take the points.
A bad day marginally got better, it happens in football, but it is happening all too often now, and it certainly is not being helped by the ongoing poor form of Manchester City loanee Kalvin Phillips.
Since coming through the doors on his loan spell, the 28 year old has failed to live up to his previous performance levels with Leeds United, and he was again incredibly poor against Burnley – with Moyes taking the decision at the half time break to hook him and James Ward-Prowse in the hopes of getting a far greater grip on the match.
Having tried to support the player previously, speaking about getting the ‘Leeds United version’ back, many will wonder if his patience is now up, as when asked about the substitution, he glibly responded.
“You’ve just asked me about the score at half-time. That probably says enough.”
His thoughts on Phillips ahead of the game were focused on game time and not improvement, but with him yet to complete 90 minutes for us, his own future career remains up in the air right now as well.
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