West Ham are third from bottom in the Premier League table after 2-0 defeat at Tottenham on Sunday; David Moyes has called on players to stand up; Hammers have scored just 10 goals in 10 games since World Cup and Graeme Souness says balance between attack and defence was not right
Monday 20 February 2023 08:57, UK
David Moyes has challenged his West Ham players to show him who is "up 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 secured wins on Saturday, the east Londoners find themselves in the relegation zone.
This campaign has been a shock to the system for West Ham after they finished seventh in the Premier League and reached the Europa League semi-finals during the previous campaign, and Moyes wants to see a response from his squad.
"We keep going," the Hammers boss told Sky Sports following their defeat to Spurs. "We've been feeling a bit better about our performances.
"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 it.
"I do know I'll be looking to see the colour of the players' eyes in the next week. You can imagine what the colour of mine will be."
West Ham may have been unbeaten in four matches before their loss in north London, but they have scored just 10 goals in 10 matches since the World Cup.
Gianluca Scamacca, the £35m summer signing from Sassuolo, was only fit enough to take a place on the bench against Spurs following a knee injury, and he was joined by Danny Ings, who arrived from Aston Villa for £15m last month.
That meant Michail Antonio, who has just two goals in the Premier League this season, led the line by himself, and the 32-year-old struggled to make an impact, recording no shots or touches in the Spurs box.
Moyes admitted he was concerned at West Ham's lack of goals, telling Sky Sports: "I'm trying to find a way of getting us more goals and more attempts. We're not making enough chances."
He added: "We've not been scoring enough goals so that means we need to try to make sure we don't concede any.
"We went to Newcastle, went a goal down and then nicked a goal from a set piece. We played Chelsea, went a goal down and got a goal back. Because we were relatively strong defensively it gave us a chance of getting something from the game.
"For long periods of the first half we played very well but we didn't focus enough right at the start of the second half. It would be good if we could have created more opportunities than we did today."
However, while Moyes talked up the importance of defensive solidity, the Sky Sports pundits felt he didn't get the balance between attack and defence right at Tottenham.
"West Ham came into the game in the bottom three and you can see the manager's thinking," said Graeme Souness. "If you look at the team you're playing against, they're not having the best of times so they're going to be solid in their approach and Spurs won't go chasing the game, if you're West Ham looking at it.
"Moyes has left out Pablo Fornals, Manuel Lanzini and Said Benrahma. They're all creative players and when it's the early part of the game and it's a bit of a war of attrition, I get why you start like that.
"West Ham didn't create much. You hope to keep it 0-0 and then maybe get those players on later in the game.
"What will annoy West Ham fans is they've come here today and they're a boxer who was counter-punching the whole game. They didn't get on the front foot and be the aggressor, take the game to Spurs. Tottenham managed to keep them at bay the whole time.
"The anger the supporters will feel is that they went to a derby game, they don't like each other and they've not had a go. They had one shot on target in 90 minutes, that's not a team having a right go."
The defeat leaves West Ham with serious work to do in the coming months to ensure their Premier League survival - and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink says the players must brace themselves for a mentally tough run-in.
"It's not about the manager. It's about the players and your pride. You don't want on your CV that you went down and that's the pride. That's what is going on," he said.
"You have to play for yourself and your family first and foremost. You have to roll your sleeves up and run and do the basics right. That has nothing to do with the manager being under pressure.
"Today was a derby and I didn't see the bit between their teeth to come here and get a result, even if it's a draw. I didn't see that wanting to really get it and that's what I missing for me with West Ham."
West Ham captain Declan Rice hinted his side may have approached the game too negatively with their five-at-the-back formation - which left their forward, creative players feeling "isolated".
"Last year, we were so good," said the midfielder to Sky Sports. "You felt like every game we went in to, we'd score maybe one or two goals."
When asked as to what has changed at the club this season, Rice replied: "It's football, sometimes things happen.
"When you play with a five at the back and a three like we were, our strikers felt a little bit isolated when we got the ball up to them. They didn't have much around them and not enough support."
Rice admitted he and his team-mates had seen the other results that had put the Hammers in the relegation zone - but says he is only concerned about his side's form.
"There's six or seven teams in and around us," Rice said. "Obviously I see the results but I'm not really too worried about how other teams are doing because we're the only ones that can change ourselves where we are.
"I'm not too bothered about them, I'm only bothered about us and doing what we can week-in, week-out. Now we know we've got a big one next week against [Nottingham] Forest."
Unsurprisingly, West Ham's struggles have put pressure on Moyes and his position at the club. But Souness says it is now down to the players to resolve the situation.
"The players will know the manager is under pressure and they'll know the supporters are not happy," he said.
"It's up to them - they have to get on with it. Dig a result out, be difficult to play against, be more aggressive than the team you're playing against.
"Being a manager isn't easy but sometimes you've said all you can say to players. David Moyes won't be saying anything different this year than what he said last year when they had a really good season.
"It's down to the players. We were talking about how they were one of the best at set-pieces. The delivery will be the same but they're not attacking it with the same aggression, that's why they're not scoring goals from set pieces. The players are short-changing the manager on what he wants.
"He will be telling them the same things now as he did over the last two years. So what's changed?
"His attitude to the game won't have changed, his words won't have changed, training won't have been any different. Tweaks here and there and he'll be asking them to do the same things he's been asking them to do for the last two years and they were getting results that way.
"Then you go and spend £180m so your squad is better on paper. Is it really all the manager's fault?"
