Blind Hammer reflects on another dismal performance.
One of the more memorable remarks Moyes made on entering the London Stadium was to claim he was a “man in a hurry”. The point however is to not just hurry but know where you are going. Most people finally now accept that the most important, distressing tactical weakness that West Ham has displayed over the last 18 months has been their abject defending. It is only a sadness that this obvious weakness was never addressed in the summer recruitment priorities and we stumbled into the season with a limited set of largely aged and/or injury prone defenders. The club were so obsessed with remedying Carroll’s and Sakho’s injury issues they completely ignored this more critical weakness. My readers will know this inept glamour recruitment policy worried me sick over the summer and I feel even worse now.
The consequences of this strategic folly are now coming home to roost. Clubs struggling before they play us all manage to score freely. Brighton Southampton Newcastle and now Everton have all recovered their form against us. Crystal Palace was unfortunate to only score 2.
Over the last 18 months the only consistent defensive solidity that Bilic has ever achieved has been with a defensive three, most effective when marshalled by James Collins. It is a mark of our current defensive weakness that the return of the injury prone Collins, a passionate and committed but limited player at the end of his career is now look upon as a possible saving grace for our team in the weeks ahead.
Yet Bilic never embraced the 3 at the back in his squad strategy and stubbornly insisted on developing a glamour team built on lose sand, erecting a failed flimsy and rickety defensive setup.
Now Moyes has come to the helm he appears to share Bilic’s analysis of the squad and he also has tried to set up a team with a flat back four. The results so far are sadly completely predictable and West Ham continues to ship goals at a rate of 2-3 goals a game. The Moyes’ magic wand could not reasonably be expected to work on a unit which had failed for the previous 18 months.
Moyes is also obviously limited by the squad options he has inherited. It seems unlikely that with any defensive cover of quality that Obonna would have retained his place. Certainly Tomkins would walk into this side. Before and during the game many called for Declan rice’s inclusion. However the Premiership is a tough baptism for an 18 year old and when Rice eventually entered the frayed he was instantly beaten by Williams for Everton’s third goal. The squad will need a major defensive overhaul in January and the reported “war chest” of £20 million for Moyes will not be anything like enough. In fact it is laughably inadequate. I can only hope that this figure is an attempt to depress market transfer expectations with a higher figure held up a sleeve. If we, for example, managed to attract a buyer for Obonna it is likely that we would have to let him go on the cheap or alternatively pay him off to leave as, his wages far exceed that which could be afforded by Italian clubs. Similarly for Jose Fonte, which club in Europe could afford a defender on £65,000 a week? We are unlikely to achieve any value out of these transfers.
It seems that we need to recruit at least 2 centre backs, at least 1, arguably 2 full back and bolster up midfield with pace and aggression. I hope that this recruitment is on track now for the beginning of January rather than waiting for the slam door at the end. We are in a hurry to recruit and we cannot play the longer game looking for value at the last minute.
Still there are several weeks during which we will need to work with our current squad. It may be that Moyes will prove me wrong but by persisting with a back 4 we will simply invite heavy defeats not just against the big clubs but the likes of Bournemouth and Stoke. Planning for 3 at the back now will not necessarily prevent further defeat, but may limit the confidence shattering heavy reverses we experience against poor or average sides.
It is not fair to criticise Moya so early but in his own words there are difficulties that he will have to learn fast about if we are to recover any semblance of form Orr confidence. I can accept for example, that he may want to build a team around the strengths of Andy Carroll. However Carroll’s propensity to injury should not be a shock. A plan B of replacing Carroll with Ayew as a like for like is surely not viable in a team set up to play a long ball? I imagine Chico will similarly struggle with this kind of service. In that context I can only conclude that Sakho’s failure to start reveals that his attitude in training must stink. If it is really that bad he needs to be shipped out on January 1st and his replacement arrive simultaneously. If it is to be long ball from now until the end of season so be it, but recruit players for this plan rather than try to squeeze round pegs into square holes.
COYI
David Griffith