David Moyes has challenged his West Ham players to show him who is “ready for the fight” after their 2-0 defeat at Tottenham on Sunday left them in the bottom three.
Goals from Emerson Royal and Heung-Min Son condemned the Hammers to their first defeat in a month but, after Bournemouth and Everton picked up wins on Saturday, the east Londoners find themselves in the relegation zone.
This campaign has been a shock to the West Ham system after finishing seventh in the Premier League and reaching the Europa League semi-finals in the previous campaign, and Moyes wants to see a response from his side.
“We keep going,” said the Hammers boss sky sports after their loss to Spurs. “We feel a bit better in our performance.
“They’ve been challenged, now let’s see who’s up for the fight.”
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Moyes added: “They’ve been here before so I think a lot of them know how to handle this.
“I know I’ll be looking to see the color of the players’ eyes next week. You can imagine what color mine will be.”
West Ham may have been unbeaten in four matches before their defeat in north London, but they have scored just 10 goals in 10 appearances since the World Cup.
Gianluca Scamacca, Sassuolo’s £35million summer signing, was only fit enough to take the bench against Spurs with a knee injury, and he was joined by Danny Ings, who arrived from England. Aston Villa for £15million last month.
It meant Michail Antonio, who has scored just two Premier League goals this season, led the line on his own, and the 32-year-old struggled to make an impact, registering no shots or touch in the surface of the Spurs.
Moyes admitted he was concerned about West Ham’s lack of goals, telling sky sports: “I’m trying to find a way to give us more goals and more attempts. We’re not creating enough chances.”
He added: “We haven’t scored enough goals, that means we have to try to make sure we don’t concede any.
“We went to Newcastle, scored a goal, then scored a goal from a set piece. We played against Chelsea, scored a goal and salvaged a goal. Because we were relatively strong defensively, that helped us. given a chance to get something from the game.
“For long periods of the first half we played very well, but we didn’t concentrate enough from the start of the second half. It would be nice if we could have created more chances than Today.”
Souness: West Ham failed to take the lead
However, while Moyes was talking about the importance of defensive solidity, the sky sports pundits felt he hadn’t found the balance between attack and defense at Tottenham.
“West Ham came into the game in the last three and you can see the manager’s thinking,” said Graeme Souness. “If you look at the team you’re playing against, they don’t have the best moments, so they’re going to be solid in their approach and Spurs won’t be chasing the game, if you’re looking at West Ham at it.
“Moyes left out Pablo Fornals, Manuel Lanzini and Said Benrahma. They are all creative players and when it’s the start of the game and it’s a bit of a war of attrition, I understand why you start like that .
“West Ham haven’t created much. You hope to keep it 0-0 and then maybe get those players later in the game.
“What will annoy West Ham fans is that they came here today and it’s a boxer who counter-kicked the whole game. They didn’t get on the front foot and didn’t weren’t the aggressor, they brought the game to Spurs.Tottenham managed to keep them at bay the whole time.
“The anger the fans will feel is that they went to a derby game, they don’t like each other and they didn’t try. They got a shot on target in 90 minutes, that’s not not a team that has a good shot.”
The defeat leaves West Ham with serious work to do in the coming months to ensure their survival in the Premier League – and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink says the players need to be prepared for a mentally tough run-in.
“It’s not about the manager. It’s about the players and your pride. You don’t want your CV to fall and that’s pride. That’s what happens,” he said. he declares.
“First and foremost you have to play for yourself and your family. You have to roll up your sleeves and run and do the basics well. It has nothing to do with the manager being under pressure.
“Today was a derby and I didn’t see the bite between their teeth to come here and get a result, even if it’s a draw. I didn’t see that really wanting get it and that’s what I miss with West Jambon.”
‘West Ham players change Moyes’
Unsurprisingly, West Ham’s struggles have put pressure on Moyes and his position at the club. But Souness says it is now up to the players to resolve the situation.
“The players will know the manager is under pressure and they will know the fans are unhappy,” he said.
“It’s up to them – they have to go on. Dig a result, be tough to face, be more aggressive than the team you’re playing against.
“Coaching isn’t easy but sometimes you’ve said all you can say to the players. David Moyes won’t say anything different this year than he said last year when they did a really good season.
“It’s up to the players. We were talking about how they were one of the best from set pieces. The delivery will be the same but they don’t attack it with the same aggression that’s why they don’t score no goals from set pieces Players change the manager on what he wants.
“He will tell them the same things now as he has for the past two years. So what’s changed?
“His attitude towards the game won’t have changed, his words won’t have changed, the training won’t have been different. Adjustments here and there and he’ll ask them to do the same things he asked them to do. to do over the past two years and they were getting results that way.
“Then you spend £180m making your team better on paper. Is that really the manager’s fault?”
Sky Sports
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