February 2024 – Under The Hammers

The Eagerly Anticipated Jurassic Park The Bus Derby Sees West Ham Travel To Everton

Will West Ham’s win against Brentford be the catalyst for embracing greater adventure, or will they be dragged back to dreary reality by Dyche’s cynical tactics at Everton?

For different reasons both West Ham and Everton had cause to celebrate on Monday evening. For the Hammers it was a first three point haul of the calendar year as they overcame struggling Brentford with a convincing 4-2 score-line. The Toffees even managed to go one better earning an extra four points after the Appeals Panel decided their original punishment for flouting the Premier League’s financial rules had been excessively harsh. On Saturday the two sides go head to head at Goodison Park for the title of the league’s most uninteresting team.

Last Monday night’s match was the second successive home game where the ball hit the back of the net six times. On this occasion, the goal distribution was more to the Hammer’s liking than when the Arsenal had visited two weeks earlier. It was West Ham’s first four goal return since victory at Bournemouth last April.

This was a much improved showing from West Ham that finally offered supporters the value for money they crave in terms of entertainment. As an aside, it was refreshing to hear a breakaway faction of pundits before the match agreeing that supporters had a right to expect entertainment in exchange for their hard-earned ticket money.

It would be premature to conclude on the evidence of one match that David Moyes team had turned a corner with Monday’s victory. After all, just look at the number of corners Manchester United are alleged to have turned since the start of the season. But a consistent ambitious approach such as this would certainly reduce the number of complaints. The win also puts the Hammers back in the ‘conversation’ for European qualification – perhaps another stab at our favourite Europa Conference. The battle for the minor placings looks destined to depend as much on the consistency (or lack of it) by the likes of Newcastle and Brighton as it will on West Ham’s own efforts.

Moyes received a massive boost prior to the game by being able to name Lucas Paqueta in his starting eleven. It wasn’t the Brazilian’s most influential game, but his mere presence gives opponents more to think about – and takes the pressure away from others. No surprise that Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus rediscovered swagger coincided with his return.

Paqueta also restored a balance to the team with his ability to operate effectively on the left hand side of the front three. It allowed Emerson to resume his impressive repertoire of overlapping and underlapping runs, and for neat triangle interplay between Paqueta, Emerson and JWP to confuse the Brentford defence. The preference for attacking down the left makes it all the more of a puzzle why Moyes opted for Kudus, Ward-Prowse and Ben Johnson in that role rather than the obvious natural replacement in Maxwell Cornet.

Could it turn out to be the ironic story of the season that Paqueta helps to save Moyes job before swanning off to pastures anew in the summer?

While the final scoreline against Brentford looks convincing enough it was not, in my opinion, the entirely convincing performance that some reports suggested. Of course, six goals, a Bowen hattrick and a super Emerson strike provided welcome entertainment, but reasons to be guarded remain. The visitors still contrived to have more possession and more touches in the opposition box than their hosts.

It is not unusual for West Ham to start home games with a bit of a flurry – and a spot of high pressing – before tailing off and settling into their more usual passive rhythm. It was just that on this occasion, the opening flurry resulted in two goals courtesy of disorganised Brentford defending – a tally which could have been higher if Tomas Soucek had converted the easiest of all the chances.

But after West Ham had reciprocated the defensive generosity by allowing Maupay to pull a goal back, the game went off the boil for a lengthy period. There was little notable goalmouth action until Bowen scored his third just after the hour mark, closely followed by Emerson’s stunner.

At 4-1 it should have been a case of coasting to victory but instead Moyes trademark game management foibles ensured the closing minutes were as tense as ever – with the final whistle nervously anticipated. If it was not the perfect opportunity after 70 minutes to give at least one of George Earthy or Ollie Scarles a run-out, then when would it be? What was gained by the introduction of Michail Antoinio at that stage of the game, or Ben Johnson in injury time.

It is difficult to know what to make of Brentford. A shocking run of form has seen them win just two of their last 12 league games. With the Everton points adjustment, they now look nervously down instead of up the table. It seems they are missing Brian Mbeumo as much as they did Ivan Toney who did little to enhance his reputation as a £100m striker. But the Bees main concern is their disorganised defending. A second points deduction for Everton may be their best hope of survival

Saturday’s opponents are without a league victory since winning at Burnley on 16 December – to record a fourth consecutive three point haul. Since then, they have lost four and drawn five of nine League games played. If they are eventually hit with a second points deduction when their most recent financial misdeeds are heard, it would put them in serious jeopardy of a first ever relegation from the Premier League.

Sean Dyche is the clubs eighth manager since Moyes left for Old Trafford in 2013. Managerial appointments have flipped-flopped between the dour, the dramatic and the dreadful. While the ‘dinosaur’ manager has largely become an extinct species, Dyche and Moyes continue to wave the flag for low thrills, caution and pragmatism. It’s just that Dyche’s brand of workmanlike comes with far more physicality, cynicism and outhousery than we see at West Ham. With Everton one of only four clubs boasting a lower average possession than the Hammers, it doesn’t promise to be the most pleasing of spectacles.

How Moyes approaches the game will be an interesting test of his corner-turning abilities. His team needs to show far more character and ambition than it did in similar circumstances at Nottingham Forest two weeks ago.

The only debate from a team selection point of view is what to do about the centre-back pairing. Zouma now looks permanently crocked and with all the manoeuvrability of a low-loader. He is even more uncomfortable when asked to play on the left hand side of a pair. Dinos suddenly looks to be the most accomplished centre-back – accepted it’s a low bar – but may not be the best choice to partner Zouma. An Ogbonna – Dinos pairing would make sense but is it likely that the ever loyal Moyes will drop his captain to the bench?

Just as we saw with last October’s game between the two sides at the London Stadium this is not going to be a end-to-end goal fest. A single goal wins it or else it will be a low scoring draw. With the Toffees packed with muscular giants, the Hammers challenge is how to pass their way through a packed defence. Or is it time for JWP to finally equal the Beckham direct free-kick tally.

Three goals on Monday moved Bowen onto 14 in the league for the season. Only two players – Paolo Di Canio (16 in 1999/2000) and John Hartson (15 in 1997/98) have scored more in a Premier League season for West Ham. Another hattrick on Saturday will see him burst through the record books. COYI!

Were you there the last time West Ham beat Brentford in a league match?

This was how I began last week’s article prior to the game against Nottingham Forest:

“Once again Geoff hit the nail on the head with his article published on Thursday. Week after week we seem to be writing the same thing about the current state of the team, and the ongoing debate concerning the manager. The longer the winless run continues the further the pendulum will swing towards Moyes Out, especially with catastrophic performances like the one we witnessed last Sunday.”

For Sunday read Saturday but otherwise the same applies this week. We are slowly making our way down the Premier League for the second time this season. We began the campaign with ten points from four games and held second place in the table despite three of those four games being played away from home. The first slide began at that point with just one win and one draw in the next seven games seeing a descent into twelfth following the defeat at the hands of Monday’s opponents Brentford.

The revival began then with the next eleven league games producing six wins, four draws and just the solitary defeat (5-0 at Fulham). Somehow, despite some very average performances, we picked up 22 points from 11 games. Can you imagine us keeping that up for a whole season and finishing on 76 points from 38 games? No, nor can I. Of course there have been three defeats to follow that ‘eleven game run’.

At the turn of the year, after 19 games, at the halfway point in the season we sat in sixth. The three draws to begin 2024 meant that we stayed sixth but the teams below were catching up. Week by week we lost a place falling to seventh, eighth and currently ninth. As Geoff pointed out in his article by the time the Brentford game gets underway on Monday evening we will probably be tenth with Wolves likely to go past us (they are at home to Sheffield United on Sunday). If Chelsea had a league game rather than contesting the Carabao Cup Final against Liverpool on Sunday then we might have even been down in the bottom half once again as we were in early November.

Apart from Chelsea and Wolves we have a seven-point cushion above the team in twelfth, Fulham, so we are unlikely to fall any further in the near future. Our winless run since the start of 2024 in the league now stands at six games with three points from three draws in those games. Only one team in the Premier League has a worse record than that – Burnley have only collected two. Even bottom club Sheffield United have four!

The winless run in all competitions to begin the year 2024 has now reached eight after last week’s loss to Forest, equalling the winless record of Redknapp’s team at the beginning of 1997, and that of the team at the start of 1922, more than one hundred years ago. Failure to beat Brentford on Monday will create a new (unwanted) record of nine consecutive winless games.

Our current form doesn’t suggest that we can beat Brentford on Monday. Since they beat Forest 3-2 on 20^th January (as we did last November) they have had a tough run of fixtures, losing 3-2 at Tottenham, and also to Liverpool and Manchester City (twice), the last game a narrow 1-0 defeat on Tuesday this week. They did also beat Wolves so they have collected six points in 2024.

Our record against Brentford since they came into the Premier League in 2021 makes for depressing reading. We have faced them five times in league games, two at home and three away losing all five games 2-0, 2-1, 2-0, 2-0, and 3-2. We did beat them 1-0 on their ground in the third round of the FA Cup a little over a year ago. Five defeats, and they scored at least twice in all five games. In the reverse fixture at the Gtech Community Stadium in November we were 1-0 down, led 2-1 (Bowen and Kudus) before losing 3-2.

If we do lose the game then we will equal another record. In the whole history of the top-flight in English football apparently only three teams have a 100% record involving more matches against a single opponent – 6 games. They are Manchester City (v Bournemouth), Arsenal (v Reading), and Nottingham Forest (v Portsmouth). That would be another unwanted record heading our way in this poor run.

Losing our last three games 6-0, 3-0 and 2-0 means it is now over 300 minutes since we scored a league goal (the Ward-Prowse penalty v Bournemouth). We haven’t failed to score and lost the game in four consecutive league games since Alan Pardew was in charge when the run extended to five in September / October 2006. Less than two months later he was gone. In the six winless league games of 2024 we have scored only one goal in open play in 540 minutes (9 hours!) – Cornet’s goal v Sheffield United.

Are you depressed yet? I’ll continue to look for ways that we might possibly win this game. Perhaps the return of Paqueta? Is he fit yet? His wife said he was fit weeks ago. He has started 18 out of our 25 league games this season. All 10 of our wins have come in those games. In the 7 games he has missed we have failed to win any of them. Also we have scored an average of 1.7 goals per game in the games he has started, and 0.7 goals per game in the games he has missed. It seems we can only win when he plays. Surely he has to start even if he is not 100% fit yet?

Do you know when we last beat Brentford in a league game? How far back does your memory go? It was over 30 years ago. It was the very first season of the Premier League but we weren’t in it following relegation at the end of 1991/92. We were in the second tier (ridiculously called Division One at the time!). In April 1993 we beat them 4-0 at Upton Park with goals from Kevin Keen, Trevor Morley, Martin Allen and Peter Butler. I was there on that Saturday afternoon with 16,000 others for that game. Following the match we were third in the league pushing for promotion (only two went up automatically then). We still had three games to play.

The following Saturday (again only 16,000) we beat Bristol Rovers (Julian Dicks penalty and David Speedie). I remember great humour from the Bristol Rovers away fans that day who were singing “we’re going down in a minute” as the match was drawing to a close. They were applauded by the whole stadium. We were still third. A week later we played on the Sunday away at Swindon and won 3-1 (Clive Allen, Kenny Brown and Trevor Morley).

The final game of the season was at home to Cambridge. We needed to win to ensure automatic promotion. Over 27,000 of us were there that day (I should think so too!), a record attendance at Upton Park that season. I can remember the tension being unbearable as we failed to score in the first half and went in 0-0 at the break. Fortunately goals from David Speedie and Clive Allen sealed a 2-0 win and we were in the Premier League for the first time! We were level on 88 points with Portsmouth in second but our goal difference was 40 (81-41) and theirs was 34 (80-46). Great memories and great entertainment too!

To put current attendance levels into perspective the biggest league crowd at Upton Park in in our first season in the Premier League (1993-94) was the 28,832 of us who turned up for the visit of Manchester United. We hardly managed to exceed 21,000 for most games with that figure only exceeded three times with a low of just above 15,000. I mention the Manchester United game specifically as that was played on February 26^th1994, exactly thirty years to the day before the game against Brentford on Monday. We drew 2-2 that day (Lee Chapman and Trevor Morley). That season Manchester United finished as Champions and also we saw the end of terraces at Upton Park. We were all-seater for the beginning of the next season.

“You’ve Never Had It So Good” Claims SuperJock As West Ham Continue Their Slide Down The Table

With managerial chaos and uncertainty dominating the narrative at the London Stadium, West Ham must prepare for their customary defeat to Thomas Frank’s Brentford

It is almost impossible to imagine a scenario where David Moyes is offered a new contract by West Ham at the end of the season. Only a madman could conclude that another term of Moyesball is the right and sensible option for the club. The Board may see Moyes as ‘the devil they know’ but there is far too much antipathy from supporters for it to work – and they are unlikely to take two or more years of misery lightly. Would a business owner knowingly sign-up for that – an extended period of guaranteed toxicity?

Although the owners will have their major focus on revenues, they cannot be impervious to the cause of fan unrest – a style of football that will bore the pants off from anyone paying more than casual attention. With 60% of the club’s income originating from Broadcasting (including prize money) the past three seasons may well have served them handsomely. But with the recent slide down the table and the prospect of further European participation fading by the week, there will already be a hit to revenues – without risking a season ticket holders revolt.

By the time West Ham kick-off against Brentford on Monday night they will most likely be down to tenth in the table. Had it not been for the Carabao cup final distracting Chelsea, they would probably have slipped into the bottom half. And history doesn’t offer much hope that the long eight game winless run will come to an end against the Bees.

If anyone had been looking for a reaction to the Arsenal slaughter during last Saturday’s visit to Nottingham, they were sadly disappointed. With Lucas Paqueta still absent through injury and Forest doubling up on Mohammed Kudus the lack of creativity on show was painfully obvious. The return of Michail Antonio should have been a positive but served only to reinforce the obsession with route-one football. When presented with the Hammers only realistic goal opportunity of the afternoon he fluffed his lines as often happens when allowed too much time. West Ham may have enjoyed more possession than is usual in games, but were slow and predictable with their possession. The long misdirected cross-field representing the go-to tactic. The hosts had the lion’s share of goalscoring attempts and could easily have doubled their final tally.

Rather than taking the opportunity in his post-match comments to apologise for yet another abject and depressing performance, Moyes opted for tetchy distraction with tales of his winning genius. It convinced no-one and served only to widen the divide between manager and fans. Perhaps if you add in three seasons of Euro group games against teams from third tier continental leagues then his win percentage still looks healthy. But in the Premier League, it is now just 27 wins from the last 81 games. Hardly genius level.

The uncertainty over Moyes future has been a godsend for the clickbait websites who on a single day can carry stories that he is about to sign a new contract, that he has x games to save his job, and that West Ham have drawn up a shortlist of managerial replacements. A list that bizarrely has Steve Cooper’s name included on it – possibly as a diversity candidate.

None of us know what is actually going on, or how the various board members view the situation. The vacuum of uncertainty exists because I believe they intend to limp along until the end of the season under the current regime. Allowing Moyes contract to run down avoids accusations from the punditocracy that they have treated their pal harshly.

While most pundits continue to implore us to “be careful what we wish for” – is the collective noun a predictability of pundits – a few have started to break ranks and suggest that fans are right to want better. That anyone can believe the manager has what it takes to turn things around or lead the club forward is magical thinking. The tendency for casual observers is to confuse results with performances – but to the supporter they are very different. There have been very few notable performances this season even if impressive results against Brighton, Spurs, and Arsenal have been recorded. They were more a case of opponents not taking chances, riding your luck and benefiting from individual moments of brilliance from Paqueta, Kudus or Jarrod Bowen. A style of play based around the low block might turn up trumps once in a while, but it is not a recipe for long term sustainable success in any competition higher in quality than the Europa Conference.

And if results aren’t quite as brilliant as they have been presented, the negligence in running down the size and quality of the squad could be considered a sacking offence in its own right. And this despite large sums of money being invested in the transfer market. It has left us short on experience, with precious few options from the bench, and is the reason why so many end up playing out of position. Equally, the manager has no track record of improving or developing players – apart from trying to shoehorn them into his rigid system. It cannot be an attractive proposition for potential signings and it’s hard to imagine the existing playing staff being at all happy with it.

I fully expect the winless run to continue into next month when we play Burnley. Thomas Frank has had the measure of Moyes tactics from the very start and there’s nothing to suggest that Monday will be the time to take a first Premier League point from Brentford. The only hope is that Paqueta finally returns to deliver a stroke of inspiration – for without him the team is impotent. With Kalvin Phillips suspended there will be a recall for Tomas Soucek – providing another chance to see the 1970’s tactic of goal kicks lofted towards the touchline for Soucek to head on. It’s the beauty of Moyesball. With a guarantee that Ivan Toney will pick up at least one goal, the Hammers will need to break their three game duck if they are going to put an end to the Brentford whitewash. COYI!

Can West Ham win at Nottingham Forest to avoid a run of eight winless games at the beginning of a calendar year?

Once again Geoff hit the nail on the head with his article published on Thursday. Week after week we seem to be writing the same thing about the current state of the team, and the ongoing debate concerning the manager. The longer the winless run continues the further the pendulum will swing towards Moyes Out, especially with catastrophic performances like the one we witnessed last Sunday. There are still a number of fans, although the number must surely be dwindling, who are convinced that he should be offered a new contract, but it is hard to believe that they like what they see from week to week.

It is mainly pundits, comprising the same ex-players that dominate our screens and airwaves, and journalists who continue to support Moyes and suggest that West Ham fans are giving him an undeserved hard time. One of the latest to join in is Ian Herbert who took a whole page of Wednesday’s Daily Mail to tell us that ‘Moyes deserves a better exit.’ At least he seems to agree that the end is approaching, but suggests that we, as fans, are not giving him a ‘longer credit line and greater appreciation’.

He suggests that the calls for a manager like De Zerbi, who many feel would provide greater imagination and flair, provides a curious logic, given that ‘the supposed model manager’ has taken Brighton to ninth position in this season’s Premier League while West Ham are …. eighth. As far as the demands for Potter goes amongst the fans, he writes that he is out of work and very much available. But he adds the well-worn line that we, as West Ham fans, get thrown at us every week, should be careful what we wish for in Potter. In his view he is a coach lacking personal charisma who is no more a fit for the club than Moyes.

His defence of Moyes extends to trying to deconstruct the notion that with him in charge it has all been grey, solid, dull football. He makes the point that in Moyes second spell in charge the club have scored more goals per game than under any manager in the Premier League era, and only Bilic managed more goals per game than Moyes in his first spell in charge.

And then the heights to which Moyes has taken us are set out, as all his ‘defenders’ do. You know the ones – the club have managed five top seven finishes in the Premier League era and Moyes has been in charge for two of them. And of course the first trophy for 43 years.

We all know this so why is there a ‘perception’ among the fans that the football is dull? We want to see a team that provides more entertainment. We want to see a squad that can move the club forward, greater depth in all positions, so that when key players are missing, others can come in to do a job. For how long have we been crying out for additions in certain positions where the squad has been depleted?

We want to see better team selection, not full backs deployed on the left wing. We want to see greater ambition; we don’t want the team to try to hang on the slender leads when we have them, we want to see our team go for the jugular. We want a manager who can make adjustments during the game when it is necessary to do so not just continue to rely on Plan A.

We want a manager who will play the players in their best positions to get the best out of them. We don’t want four central midfielders lining up at the start of a game. We want a manager who will make less predictable substitutions. Why do we always have to wait until it is seemingly too late to make changes during a game that might affect the outcome? When we are behind we don’t want to see like for like defensive substitutions, we want to have a go.

We want to see better use of successful Academy players. Don’t throw them all in at once of course, but at least give them a taste when appropriate to do so. We don’t want players picked because they seem to be favourites who, on the odd occasion, because of their height will win the ball in the air, whilst at the same time lacking an inability to control the ball or pass successfully to a team mate.

We want to be entertained with flair and style. Perhaps we want too much. Be thankful for what we have they say. Be careful what you wish for. The grass isn’t always greener etc. etc. I’ll thank David Moyes for his time at the club, and for his achievements. His record is decent, but as I have written before, I believe that most football managers (with very few exceptions) have a shelf-life that expires. Has the ‘best before’ date already been reached or gone past?

When was the last time a West Ham team began a calendar year without a win in seven games (all competitions)? I’ve been trawling through the records to try to find out. In 1998/99, a season with Harry Redknapp in charge where we eventually finished fifth, we began the 1999 calendar year poorly, failing to win until the seventh game, ironically against Nottingham Forest on 13^th February.

I’ve now found it. In 1996/97, again in Redknapp’s time, we went winless in the first eight games of 1997 before defeating Tottenham 4-3 at Upton Park. Failure to win at Nottingham Forest this weekend will see us equal that (unwanted) record.

Out of interest I went all the way back to the 1958/59 season to see if I could find any other winless periods of more than seven games at the start of a calendar year. I couldn’t find any so I went back to when we joined the Football League in 1919. The calendar year 1922 started poorly with a run of eight winless games, but despite that we still finished fourth in Football League Division Two in 1921/22. I did find examples of longer consecutive winless games at other stages of seasons. There are a few odd examples of 8, 9, 10 or 11 games in a row without a win, which not surprisingly included some relegation campaigns.

The longest consecutive winless runs I found were 12 in the 2002/03 relegation season (Glenn Roeder) – ironically the final 12 games in the calendar year (2002), and the biggest of all was the 13 winless games at the very beginning of the 1973/74 season. In fact that season we only won one of the first 21 games between August 8^th and early December. But incredibly we rallied in the second half and lost only 3 league games from the beginning of 1974 to the end of the season and avoided relegation by one point.

1968/69 was an interesting season during which we had a consecutive run of 9 winless games twice. In the first half of the season the winless run came to an end when we beat Sunderland 8-0 (the Geoff Hurst 6 game), and then we also didn’t win any of the final 9 games but still ended up a creditable eighth.

With the run of games coming up surely the winless run won’t extend much further to match any of those I’ve referred to above? If it does then perhaps a new manager will be appointed sooner rather than later.

Fans Fan Flames As Moyes Faces Forest Fire

After last weekend’s slaughter West Ham put their winless 2024 run to the test against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. What could possibly go wrong for the Moyesball machine?

I’ve said this before but it is a mystery to me that anyone would support an extension to David Moyes contract at the London Stadium. Is it really possible that anyone who has actually sat and watched West Ham play recently would reach the conclusion that two and a half more years of this is exactly what is needed?

The ritual humiliation at the hands of Arsenal last Sunday was the perfect storm of the manager’s shortcomings condensed into a single ninety minute horror show – bizarre team selection, outdated tactics, lack of ambition, reckless depletion of the squad, poor substitution policy, and the inability to make in-game adjustments according to circumstances. Let’s face it, once the inevitable first goal was conceded there was never going to be a way back for the Hammers.

Remember this is the team that Moyes has built and coached for himself over the past four season – at not insignificant cost. Of the 14 players used against Arsenal only Ben Johnson and Aaron Cresswell were at the club before he arrived. Yet to hear the manager talk you would get the impression that events on the pitch have nothing to do with. His was a cunning plan whose brilliance was only let down by the players executing it badly.

Moyes continues to get plenty of support from the pundits and media commentators community who demonstrate a disappointingly superficial view of the club and its fans. After all, West Ham are merely a support act to the big six in their thinking. The results look OK, so complaints are delusional. Get real! The idea that fans might want something more than the current turgid, unadventurous offering is unthinkable. What, they want to be entertained as well?

Most of the fan polls I’ve seen are hoping for change with many threatening to give us season tickets if the manager is renewed. Even through the Board’s financially skewed lens they must be starting realise that this team can only scrape a top ten finish at best and will not be playing in Europe next season. And Moyesball is not the biggest selling point to attract promising talent.

I’m not at all convinced by the frequently aired argument that Moyes has done a fantastic job at West Ham – although that might depend on what you expect from your manager. On paper his legacy is decent with consecutive top seven finishes and the club’s first trophy for over 40 years. The history books will not be concerned with the state of the current squad – small, slow and old – with how much money has been spent to achieve that, or that the trophy win – as welcome as it was – offered little by way of stiff competition. West Ham are reported to be the eighth richest club in the Premier League – that is our benchmark as an established top tier club. We should not be run and play like a newly promoted club that is seeking consolidation

It is difficult to look at West Ham and believe that a platform for the future is under construction. That is a reflection on both the Board and the manager. Temporary fixes to long standing structural problems have unfortunately been papered over by European glory.

There’s no doubt that Moyes first full season at the London Stadium was full of promise, particularly during the purple patch when Jesse Lingard was surging into space in the opposition half. It was by most measures the Hammers best ever Premier League season. But there was a watershed for Moyes and his tactics which occurred as we welcomed in 2022. Between the start of the 2020/21 season and December 2021 Moyes could boast a 50% win percentage and an average of 1.7 points per game. The record since then (to date) shows the win percentage dropping to 33% with a return of 1.2 points per game. Hardly impressive! The consequence of everyone knowing how West Ham play and a manager who is unable to change his twenty year old tactics.

Apparently, the club has now returned to the groundhog cycle of giving the manager three or four games to save his job. These would be away to Nottingham Forest and Everton and home to Brentford and Burnley. On current performances, the Burnley game in mid-March looks the earliest opportunity to put an end to the 2024 winless run – and, I suppose, to reset the doomsday sacking clock one more. What a way to run a football club.

The first of these games is this weekend’s visit to the City Ground which is always a passionate and tricky affair. Despite impressive wins over Newcastle and Manchester United following the appointment of Nuno Espirito Santo, Forest are also winless in the league in 2024 – although they did manage to defeat both Blackpool and Bristol City in the FA Cup. They will view the game against a shell-shocked West Ham as a perfect opportunity to put daylight between themselves and the rest of the relegation pack. How easily the Hammers defence succumbed to the Arsenal overload at set pieces will not have gone unnoticed.

Early team news suggests that both Lucas Paqueta and Michail Antonio will continue to be absent for the Hammers. It leaves Moyes with few options to mix up his beleaguered charges. Something needs to be done at the back and there must be huge concerns about Kurt Zouma’s ongoing fitness woes. A centre-back pairing of Nayef Aguerd and Dinos seems most probable. But don’t rule out the tantalising prospect of Aaron Cresswell and Angelo Ogbonna pushing for recalls in a safety first back five. The standard Moyes response to a big loss is to get back to basics and become even more cautious.

There was an amusing story online yesterday that West Ham were dismayed to discover Kalvin Phillips had eaten too many chip butties and was overweight when he joined West Ham. Apparently, a West Ham medical does not include being weighed which led to Moyes unknowingly putting him straight into the first team. Whether Phillips or Edson Alvarez gets to partner the undroppable Tomas Soucek is an unanswered question. Soucek does seem to be a decent fella but is there a more technically limited outfield player in the Premier League right now? The giveaway for me is the number of times he heads the ball or hooks it first time rather than rely on his control.

In attack, Maxwell Cornet wanted to know whether he needed to bring his boots along this weekend. I wonder whether we can top six touches in the opposition box for this game?

I’ll admit that at half-time last weekend I was half-hoping Arsenal would go on to score double figures causing Moyes to quit in embarrassment. I’m similarly torn this week. Never want to see my team beaten but equally want a fresh face and new ideas in the manager’s dugout. I know that relies on the Board making a sensible appointment as replacement, but we have nothing if we don’t have hope. COYI!

Can West Ham beat Arsenal for the third time this season?

It has only been a little over three months since we faced Arsenal for the first time this season in the EFL Cup. On the evening of 1st December Arsenal were below par, they left some key players including our old captain on the bench and VAR was on our side by not being there. If it had been in operation the opening goal might have been ruled out for Soucek holding Ramsdale’s shirt. The outcome of the game might have been different.

Arsenal’s domination of possession (72%) meant nothing when Kudus superbly controlled Aguerd’s 50 yard pass and fired home, and then Bowen made it three. Odegaard pulled one back with the final kick in the game but this meant nothing and we were through to the next round.

A little under two months later we travelled to North London to face them in a Premier League game. Once again we won the game. Arsenal’s undoing was their inability to convert possession (up to 74% this time) and domination (30 shots to 6) into goals. Some controversy over the first goal but VAR was unable to confirm whether or not the ball had gone out before Bowen hooked it back for Soucek to score. Mavropanos added a second with an excellent header early in the second half. The score line could have been even worse for the Gunners when Rice gave away a last minute penalty, but Benrahma’s effort was comfortably saved by Raya. That was the halfway point in the season and we were on 33 points, our highest ever total at this stage of a Premier League campaign.

Six weeks later and we are meeting them for the third time. Two wins, a 5-1 aggregate, how can we go wrong? Well, since that win at the Emirates we haven’t won a game in six attempts, as poor a start to a calendar year as we have made in more than 25 years. We have not been at full strength and unfortunately without our first choice eleven we struggle.

The 3-0 defeat to Manchester United last Sunday was perhaps a slightly improved performance when compared to recent games. We had almost 50 percent possession and 22 shots on goal, but as proved in the Arsenal games, possession and shots counts for nothing in the end, only goals count. Our xg was better than theirs too so do we get consolation points for that? Of course not. The game is full of statistics but until they start tinkering with the points system (and let’s hope they don’t!) it will remain as goals that count and nothing else.

Talking of tinkering have you read this week about the forthcoming trials for blue cards to be introduced alongside the yellow and red ones that currently exist? As I understand it for certain misdemeanours (cynical fouls or dissent) players will be shown a blue card and sent to a sin bin for 10 minutes. I have also read many positive comments by some who want this to happen. Is it me – am I the only person who think the idea is bonkers and will ruin the game? I may be wrong but I can just imagine teams with a player sitting out for 10 minutes attempting to waste time, taking as long as they can get away with to take goal kicks and throw ins, and perhaps trying to keep the ball near the corner flag? Just because they do it in rugby doesn’t mean it would be right for football. But based on what I have read I am in the minority with my view. Or am I?

I’ve also read that the Premier League don’t intend to use semi automated offside technology next season as they don’t think it is accurate enough. Wasn’t it used in the World Cup in Qatar? Don’t they use it in the Champions League? But not good enough for the Premier League eh? They prefer their people in Stockley Park taking an age to draw lines. Mmm.

If you haven’t yet read Geoff’s article published on Friday then take a look now. The Moyes love him or hate him debate continues among our fans. Will he get a new contract? If Paqueta returns soon and we keep a fit first eleven then we might just do enough in the remainder of the season for the board to give him one. I think that would be a mistake. Results wise he has done a good job. Entertainment not so. I don’t believe that the two are mutually exclusive. The two can co-exist. I believe that football managers have a limited shelf life with individual clubs. With few exceptions I believe that both the clubs and the managers themselves benefit from moving on elsewhere. It’s probably true of many jobs.

So can we beat Arsenal for the third time this season? It would put a dent in their chase for the title if we did. Bookmakers don’t give us much of a chance. You can get odds of around 5/1 if you fancy our chances; Arsenal are around 2/1 on. I’d love it if we did win but I just can’t see it based on our recent form since the turn of the year. Seven consecutive winless games certainly won’t help the manager in his contract negotiations! It’s almost twenty years since we did the league double over Arsenal. When did we last beat them three times in a season? In 1924-25 we actually played them six times. We won both league games by an odd goal, we knocked them out of the FA Cup at the third time of asking after two drawn games, and in the London FA Challenge Cup we beat them again. Four times in one season!

Football Is A Contract Sport: Will It Be Deal Or No Deal For Moyes As West Ham Welcome Arsenal To The London Stadium

With a transfer window that promised much and delivered little now closed we can all turn our attention to the question of the manager’s contract. What will it all mean as West Ham seek to resist the title-chasing Gunners

I dreamed of seeing a newspaper headline that the West Ham board had taken out a contract on David Moyes. That did seem a rather extreme reaction to a run of typically lacklustre performances when other less painful remedies were possible. But given the Hammer’s record of recruiting hitmen they would most probably have fired high and wide anyway.

The will-he/ won’t he be offered a new deal plotline is one that looks destined to run and until the end of the season. It’s more interesting than the football after all. I don’t see what benefit there is for the Board in renewing early and arguments of players becoming unsettled appear spurious. It would be surprising if the manager’s future was not in jeopardy amid ongoing supporter disquiet and threats not to renew season tickets. Failure to secure a further season of European football may well be enough to seal his fate.

For me, it has always been a question of performances rather than results. I understand that not everyone sees things the same way and that some are happy to trade entertainment for relative success. Indeed, many outside the club are genuinely puzzled as to why so many supporters want to see a fresh approach to what Moyes has been offering. This week it was the turn of Jim Beglin who urged supporters to ‘get real’ and be thankful for the scraps being served up. It was a surprising comment given that he must have actually seen us play a few times this season. Football so boring that when you watch it on an internet stream even the computer goes to sleep.

Prior to the Manchester United game, I was expecting West Ham to begin a gradual slide down the Premier League table. After the game I am even more convinced it will happen, and have doubts that even top half is within our grasp – unless something drastic happens or Lucas Paqueta makes a rapid return to save the day. Just as Slaven Bilic’s side were toothless in the absence of Dimitri Payet, so it is now without Moyes and Paqueta.

At least the performance at Old Trafford showed some improvement from the Bournemouth game a few days earlier. Up until the break it had been a reasonably well contested match – but the routine of conceding just after the half-time pep talk killed off any thoughts of a stirring comeback. The hosts were nowhere near as good as the media reports excitedly suggested, even though they were comfortable winners. Despite almost unheard-of levels of possession (49%) and 22 touches in the opposition box ,West Ham rarely troubled the Red Devils defence from open play. The best chances were the opening Emerson created and then squandered for himself and the ball over the top to Jarrod Bowen who hesitated a moment too long. On a weekend of record Premier League goalscoring, the Hammers were one of just two teams failing to find the net.

With the chance of a first league double of the season missed at Old Trafford, another presents itself when Arsenal visit the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Having also knocked the Gunners out of the League Cup an unprecedented third West Ham win in a season is a possibility – albeit a slim one.

Arsenal announced themselves back in the title race last weekend by beating Liverpool 3-1 at the Emirates. Post match reports paid tribute to Arteta’s tactical genius of playing Karl Havertz as the most advanced player for securing victory. From what I saw, though, the result hinged mightily on a brace of howlers by Alisson in the Liverpool goal. There’s no doubt that Arsenal have a collection of excellent first choice players but they lack the requisite strength in depth to truly worry eventual champions, Manchester City. I really hope players like Nketiah and Nelson are not on the Hammer’s radar when they are finally cleared out in the summer.

We must wait to see whether Moyes has a brilliant tactical plan of his own for dashing the Gunner’s hopes. Or whether he will play the same way that he has for the past 25 years. The relative freedom seen last Sunday will almost certainly revert to the lowest of low blocks in the hope that Bowen or Mohammed Kudus can deliver a get out of jail card. With Kalvin Phillips providing more evidence that he is a long way away from match sharpness, the manager has few options for mixing up his limited squad. But if there’s any way to fit a square peg into a round hole then Moysie is the man to find it.

It is easy to become cynical following West Ham and the feeling is particularly acute right now. My deja-vu moment is that we are in a familiar cycle where Moyes reacts to pressure for a more expansive style by allowing a little more space between the lines for a one or two games. When that inevitability fails to work due to slow, elderly or infirm defenders he claims to have tried and reverts to his tried and tested tactic of all-bar-one behind the ball. It is philosophy rather than formation that needs to change.

Naturally, it would be great to complete a treble against Arsenal (or a quadruple if you count the West Ham Woman’s victory) but the odds of it happening must be very long. Unfortunately, all the pointers are for the winless start to 2024 continuing for another weekend. I so wish it could be different. COYI!

History and current form suggests that West Ham will not win at Old Trafford on Sunday

The Hammers haven’t yet won a match in 2024 in five attempts. They haven’t gone winless in six games at the start of a calendar year for 25 years.

It is difficult to add to Geoff’s excellent article published yesterday. It seems incredible that we are sitting sixth in the Premier League after 22 games of the season, and on current form (the last five matches) we are one of only three teams who haven’t been beaten, the other two being Liverpool and Manchester City. But we haven’t won a single game in 2024 at five attempts either. And not exactly the toughest fixtures.

A goalless draw at home to Brighton to begin the year with the Seagulls being the better team, two games against a mediocre Bristol City team that knocked us tamely out of the FA Cup, outplayed at the bottom club Sheffield United, albeit robbed by some atrocious officiating, and then finally lucky to snatch a draw at home to a Bournemouth side who looked far more dangerous but saved by a mixture of poor finishing and some excellent saves from Areola. The headline writers loved having a go at Phillips for the Bournemouth goal – for me Zouma was far more culpable.

At the same time the entertainment is dire, and despite all the rumours, nobody was added to the squad to boost our attacking options in the transfer window which closed this week. And what was all that nonsense that led to the delayed departures of Benrahma and Fornals? The manager is allegedly on the verge of signing a new two-and-a-half year contract which will delight the Moyes luvvies and the “careful what you wish for brigade” whilst enraging supporters looking for more entertainment who believe that we have players who could achieve so much more with a less cautious approach.

Manchester United are next, and there isn’t a lot of history or current form to suggest that we’ll achieve anything in this game. We haven’t won there in the league for many years, not since the infamous Tevez goal that kept us in the top-flight in 2007. That was the last time we did the double over them too. In fact we beat them in three consecutive league fixtures at that time for the first time since the 1970s. An unlikely win in this game would enable us to match the three wins in a row once again. We have beaten them eight times since 2007, but seven of those have been home fixtures, and our only away win came in the league cup a couple of years ago.

In 55 Premier League meetings they have won 33, 13 have been drawn, and we have won 9, including the last two, both at the London Stadium. They have scored more than 100 goals against us in those games and we haven’t yet scored 50. Late goals from Bowen and Kudus did however enable us to win a fairly drab game just before Christmas.

If we avoid defeat then that would be seven league games in a row, but conversely if we don’t win then that would be six games in all competitions at the beginning of a calendar year without winning a game, something that hasn’t happened for 25 years!

David Moyes time at the helm for Manchester United lasted just 34 league matches, and this will apparently be the 34^th Premier League game where he is taking charge against them. When facing them he has never won a league game at Old Trafford.

You have to go back to the record-breaking season of 1985-86 to find a West Ham victory over Manchester United in the month of February when Cottee and Ward scored the goals in a 2-1 win at Upton Park in front of just 22,000 fans. Our sole February victory in a league game at Old Trafford came in 1929, 95 years ago this week. The attendance that day was a mere 12,000!

So there is very little to suggest that we can win this time. But I’m forever hopeful! What are the chances?

West Ham Log 2024: It’s Football Dave But Not As We Know It, Moyes Out!

Do we really need another two years of dour Dave’s drab and dreary caution? Does anyone enjoy watching West Ham play these days? How much longer can the manager cling on?

It’s a question that’s been asked before but is there anyone left who genuinely looks forward to watching West Ham play right now? Sure, there may be those who follow the results from a distance and take quiet satisfaction of seeing the team sitting sixth in the standings and having reached the last 16 of the Europa League. But does any fan who takes the time to watch games closely believe what they see is good value. That a game plan built on caution and attrition is worthy of the beautiful game. Does anyone ever say to their mates “Going to the game? I never get tired of watching West Ham’s resilience”?

David Moyes has been at West Ham for just over four years now. After a slow start, he hit a purple patch with a sixth place finish in his first full season. The swift counter-attacking football took opponents by surprise and, for a while, was exciting to watch. While the form carried over into the first half of the following season, West Ham had become a known quantity by now. Opponents worked that a high press cancelled out the counterattacking threat and without a tactical plan B, Moyes approach became increasingly cautious.

Fans desperate to see a fresh face and fresh ideas in the London Stadium technical area are routinely accused by the pundit community of being deluded or entitled. “Careful what you wish for” is the stock response. West Ham supporters should be grateful they are not in a relegation battle. That showing greater ambition would without question replace grim one goal victories with assured 4-3 defeats. Media outlets likewise are loathe to be critical of the manager, fearing losing access for their next big story. Even so, some have started to openly admit that watching West Ham is not easy on the eye – although preferring to describe the style as pragmatic, rather than boring. The well-worn phrase that football is a results business misses the point that it is also meant to entertain.

The elephant in the dressing room is, of course, the Europa Conference league win. After 43 trophy-less years it was amazing to experience the club winning something again. For many supporters it would have been a first ever taste of success. But in the cold light of day we cannot ignore the relative strength of the competition that we were in. The scenes in Prague at the end of the night and in east London the following day demonstrated how much it meant to the Hammer’s faithful. But Moyes can’t dine out on that result forever in the face of growing fan unrest. Surely, the Board are aware of that.

This season has been a weird one in many respects. It almost came as a surprise to find us sitting in sixth place at the turn of the year, so unremarkable were our performances. There have been several notable results – winning away at Brighton, Tottenham and Arsenal were all unexpected– that owed much to dogged defensive resistance. But in very few of the ten league wins to date have West Ham been a dominant force. They say that a good team needs to know how to win ugly, but it shouldn’t be the default model.

The Hammers remain without a win in 2024. Having been knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship opposition, they have drawn each of their three Premier League games. They were outplayed by both Brighton and Bournemouth at the London Stadium and despite being rightly aggrieved at the poor refereeing in Sheffield, did not deserve to come away with more than a point on the balance of play. With games against Manchester United and Arsenal on the horizon, the chances of extending the stay in the sunlit uplands of the top six may very well be limited.

There are parallels between this season and 2021/22 where the team were also handily placed to push on as the January transfer window opened. Just as the club failed to act then, little was achieved this time around either, aside from the loan signing of Kalvin Phillips. Even more unexpectedly, a squad which was woefully thin anyway was allowed to become a net three lighter following the belated departures of Said Benrahma and Pable Fornals. Both players clearly went backwards during their time at West Ham – did they become worse players or simply get disillusioned – but have still been among the most used substitutes from the bench this term. Is Moyes now going to turn to youth or just make even fewer in-game changes?

The team selection for the Bournemouth game was bizarre to say the least. The decision to select all his favourites even if it meant playing them out of position must have seemed a good idea in the manager’s head. Would none of his assistants dare challenge him on the madness of putting JWP on the left wing and pushing Tomas Soucek forward as a Number 10? That Kalvin Phillips might be a tad ring rusty came as no surprise to the average fan but was apparently beyond an experienced manager with a thousand plus games under his belt. In fairness the real culprit for the Bournemouth goal was Kurt Zouma but digging out Phillips made for a better headline.

Sunday sees Moyes take his Hammers side to Old Trafford to face an erratic Manchester United side. The Red Devils victory in their topsy-turvy midweek encounter with Wolves moved them to within a point of West Ham. Moyes has never won as a manager at Old Trafford in 17 attempts and Carlos Tevez was the last Hammer to score a league winner there in 2007.

It is not difficult to predict that we will see a backs to the wall low West Ham block which will be described as a defensive masterclass if we win, but as tame surrender if we lose. Definitely less than 30% possession and fewer that ten touches in the opposition box – mostly headers.

I can see Moyes dropping Phillips to the bench for this one, allowing Soucek to drop back and Danny Ings to reprise his Bramall Lane role behind Jarrod Bowen. The most probable outcome is a comfortable home win unless further heroics from Alphonse Areola and Mohammed Kudus earn a point as they did on Thursday. It could well be the start of a Hammers slide down the table and its not difficult to imagine being overtaken by Manchester United, Newcastle, Brighton, and Chelsea before the season is out. It really is time for a change. COYI!

West Ham Versus Bournemouth Preview: Thursdays, Transfers and Takings

It’s Thursday night and so it must be time for a West Ham game. Will events on the pitch be as exciting as the live feed from the transfer window?. Or will both end in disappointment?

Once again, the schedulers have seen fit to shunt the Hammer’s forthcoming Premier league fixtures to the graveyard Thursday/ Sunday slots. As if we don’t already have enough of that during the weeks of European competition. It is a consequence, perhaps, of West Ham not being the easiest of watches under the current pragmatic regime.

Still David Moyes team continue to hold on to sixth spot in the standings and would have been even handier placed had it not been for the scandalous antics of the Stockley Park VARmin ten days or so ago. They must have already shut down their monitors to have missed the late penalty area assault on Jarrod Bowen in the final seconds.

Today’s game is also scheduled to coincide with the ceremonial ‘slamming shut’ of the transfer window – just as it had in the summer when West Ham were featured in the Friday night game at Luton. Why interrupt the evening’s nail-biting excitement by playing a football match?

As usual the January window is proving to be a triumph of hope over expectation. I had mentioned previously that precious little happens in this window, especially at West Ham. It’s almost as if all those reports of players being linked, bids being made, and talks being held are made up. Despite all the evidence, we still like to imagine something will happen.

As things stand the first team squad is one man down on its pre-window strength if persistent rumours that Said Benrahma and Pablo Fornals might join the exodus then the bones will be even barer. New recruits are badly needed but time is rapidly running low – short-term, squad filling panic buys are not what is wanted. A whole month has passed to make a move, yet here we are scrambling around looking to grab a bargain in the final minutes.

The lack of activity has focused attention once again on the presumed mismatch of priorities between manager David Moyes, recruitment guru Tim Steidten and bean counter David Sullivan. Cheap, young, talented footballers with extensive Premier League experience appear to be in short supply for some reason. It must be a frustrating environment for Steidten who had been employed on the strength of the magic he had performed at Bayer Leverkusen – but at a club that lacks the courage of its convictions. It now appears that Liverpool are sniffing around for his services and who could blame him if he jumped onboard the Mersey ship? I doubt we need worry so much about Moyes being headhunted in light of the Liverpool and Barcelona jobs about to become vacant?

The annual Deloitte Football Money League was published recently and emphasised how big the financial gap is between the also-rans (like West Ham) and the six rich clubs of English football. The standings, based on annual revenues, show Real Madrid as the world’s richest club with Manchester City just behind. A total of eight Premier League clubs are in the top twenty with West Ham slipping down to 18^th after a poor league season in 2022/23.

The following table shows the breakdown between Matchday, Broadcasting (including prize money) and Commercial revenues for each club in the top 20, plus revenue totals for the other English clubs ranked between 21 and 30. All the figures reported are in Euros.

What immediately stands out – apart from the size of the gap – is how poor West Ham’s matchday and commercial receipts are in comparison with the big clubs. How and why do Tottenham earn three times the matchday income and five times the commercial income compared to the Hammers. And, of course, those revenues directly influence the size of recruitment and salary budgets. The big stadium bounce has not enriched the club’s coffers anything like imagined and, in relative terms, we are not far ahead of the clubs ranked just below.

Turning to tonight’s game, West Ham face a Bournemouth side much improved from when the two teams met on the opening day of the season. It had taken time for Andoni Iraola to mould the team in his image, but they had hit a rich vein of form before falling to consecutive league defeats against Tottenham and Liverpool. The decision to replace Gary O’Neil with Iraola was controversial but appears to have improved both Bournemouth and Wolves. While the Cherries rely heavily on the rejuvenated Solanke for goals, they have looked a very capable side going forward, although less certain at the back. Semenyo, Tavernier, and Scott will all carry a threat to a rearguard easily unsettled by pace.

Moyes has remained tight-lipped on his own selection options and there are ongoing fitness concerns over Edson Alvarez and Lucas Paqueta. Mohammed Kudus has returned following Ghana’s early exit from AFCON and surely must be ready to start. New arrival Kalvin Phillips is available but with little game time under his belt for the past two season is unlikely to last 90 minutes of competitive football. Ordinarily, his situation would mean several weeks on the bench, but all indications are that this is a Moyes signing who will go straight into the starting eleven. Welcome and good luck, Kalvin.

My hope is that we will eventually see Phillips and Alvarez as a double defensive midfield pivot releasing JWP for more offensive duties behind a front three of Paqueta, Kudus and Jarrod Bowen. It would be an exciting prospect if allowed to flourish. The stumbling block is whether Moyes is prepared to relegate long-term favourite Tomas Soucek to extended bench duty. It would be no surprise if the manager fudged this decision today by allowing Alavarez extra recovery time.

Assuming Paqueta is not yet ready to return then it will be another outing for Danny Ings following his lively performance at Bramall Lane. The one enforced changed will be Ben Johnson replacing the suspended Vladimir Coufal.

A win tonight will put daylight between ourselves and the collection of teams below, but whatever happens the chances are we will remain sixth until the weekend. I don’t have a high degree of confidence its a position that canbe maintained with the current squad strength, but while there’s hope let’s cling to it.

On the opening day of the season West Ham failed to press home their early advantage against Bournemouth and in typical Moyesball style offered the opposition a route back into the game. All it needed was a lucky deflection and two points were dropped. Nothing suggests the underlying approach to games has changed much since then. So a narrow West Ham one goal victory is probably the best a fan can get. COYI!