EXTRA TIME

No Game on Sunday, no PL in 2020/21?

February 9, 2020 at 3:08 pm Leave a comment

Due to adverse weather conditions West Ham’s away match at the Etihad against Manchester City has been postponed. Now West Ham’s “Winter Break” – the first of this kind in Premier League history – begins and that means that their next match will not be played before Monday, 24 February, when designated PL champions Liverpool are going to host the Hammers. Much in contrary to the Reds which can be all but sure to win the league, now 22 points ahead of Manchester City with 13 games to play before the end of the season, the Irons are desperately fighting against losing their place in the Premier League.

The break gives us the opportunity to look back if the change of manager at the turn of the year has brought an upturn in fortune for West Ham. Unfortunately the results have not improved so far, and David Moyes hasn’t won any league game since the victory over Bournemouth in his first game in charge.

Matt Law in the Telegraph wrote that West Ham must fear to be running out of time in their battle for survival. It’s over five weeks since David Moyes returned to West Ham United with the bold claim that winning is “what I do” as the club attempted to avoid dropping into the relegation zone.

Just one Premier League win, in his first match back in charge against Bournemouth, and six games later, West Ham are in the bottom three with Moyes now admitting “you would kill me with the results.”

Five points from his first six league games is one worse than the previous six under sacked manager Manuel Pellegrini, who managed two victories, against Chelsea and Southampton, during that time.

Yet despite his poor win percentage, it seems Moyes will be judged from here on in after West Ham signed Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen at the end of the transfer window and this week added coaches Kevin Nolan and Paul Nevin to his backroom team.

Despite a backdrop of fan unrest which will lead to new actions of protest aimed at David Sullivan and David Gold, the co-owners, and Karren Brady, the vice-chairman, Moyes remains positive that he can deliver what he had claimed to do best and win enough games to keep West Ham up.

“You would kill me with the results, but I feel we’ve played much better,” Moyes said. “We’ve been worthy and closer to more points than what we’ve had. We’ve not got them and it could be costly because of that. We’ve got to turn that quickly into results.”

Four more victories?

Moyes believes four more victories over the course of the remaining 13 games, six of which are at the London Stadium, should be enough to see West Ham safe. The task looks harder than it initially sounds, when supporters consider the team have won only four times in the league since the end of August.

“I’ve always looked at the win column and to stay in the Premier League you need to get 10 wins,” Moyes said. “That’s my amateur mathematics. But if you get 10 wins you tend to get enough draws to get you 38, 39 points by the end of the season.

“I look at the win column and I’m really only looking at the next game. You’ve got to pick up what you can on the road and make your home wins really important.”

With a little help from …

As if to illustrate, perhaps, just how desperate West Ham and Moyes are becoming for victories, the Scot suggested that the supporters annoyed with the running of the club could also channel some of their anger towards trying to influence referees.

“All I’m saying is, as team manager, I could do with their help, especially in the home games,” Moyes said. “We need them to challenge decisions, to question what’s going on, to support the team.

“I just feel we’re getting the wrong end of things and I need to try to turn that into more positives if I can. How can I do that? Maybe the supporters could help us persuade people’s thinking.”

It might not only be Premier League survival West Ham are playing for over the final 13 games, as Moyes conceded the future of Declan Rice, whom he described as being the best holding midfielder in the country, is also at stake.

Moyes appeared to suggest Rice could leave, whether or not West Ham go down, by saying: “Quite often in the story of building a football club, you have to sell. You may have to do it. It’s just the way on the journey. I hope it’s not the case with Declan, but I said the same with Wayne Rooney, said the same with Joleon Lescott.

“The team still got better because we were able to make sure we got the right people in and make sure we got the right resources in; make sure we were signing the right players to replace them. And if that ever came around [Rice going], I’d hope we will be able to do it. I hope it doesn’t come around.

“It’s the last few months [of the season] and we need Declan to be right on it and show everything he’s got. In my mind, at the moment, he is arguably the best holding midfield player in the country, and the best thing about Declan is he is young and he will get better.”

West Ham certainly need to get better, however hard the next two trips might be.

And it could be Kevin Nolan, West Ham’s skipper about seven years back when West Ham succeeded in their attempt to gain promotion in the first season after their relegation to the Championship, who helps the Hammers’ revival. Nolan together with Paul Nevin has joined Moyes’s coaching staff at West Ham recently.

Nolan, 37, scored 31 goals in 157 appearances for the Hammers between 2011 and 2015, before player-coach roles at Leyton Orient and Notts County.

Paul Nevin, 50, coached at Brighton, Fulham and Norwich before joining the England coaching staff until June 2019.

“Both have a wealth of experience in the game,” said manager David Moyes. 

“I’m sure they will make a very positive contribution between now and the end of the season.

“Kevin obviously knows the club very well having played here previously, while Paul’s coaching pedigree is excellent. 

“It has taken some time to finalise the coaching staff, but I wanted to make sure I brought in the right people to help us, and both Kevin and Paul are fantastic additions.”

Both have joined Moyes’ staff initially until the end of the season. West Ham are 18th in the Premier League before commencing with their winter break until 24 February, searching for four more victories at least …

West Ham’s Premier League fixtures until the end of the season

Manchester City (A – postponed), Liverpool (A), Saints (H), Arsenal (A), Wolves (H), Spurs (A), Chelsea (H), Newcastle (A), Burnley (H), Norwich (A), Watford (H), Red Devil’s (A), Aston Villa (H).

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