I have not accepted the idea that David Moyes had lost the dressing room for almost two years. My logic was straightforward: if five or six players were consistently giving it their best, it meant that some of them still had faith in him.
Even though Moyes was accused of demoralizing unimportant players like Said Benrahma, several players, notably Coufal, Soucek, Bowen, and Zouma, continued to show faith in the manager.
But after seeing how the West Ham team played against Nottingham Forest, I found it difficult to believe that any player was sticking up for the management. What I witnessed was a group of athletes who had lost all faith in one another; several of them fled.
After seeing red against Nottingham Forest, Kalvin Phillips makes the Hammers players lose faith in Moyes.
Players for the Hammers start to doubt Moyes after the team’s lack of discipline
None of the team showed up for the ball early in the game or demanded passes be made to them. There was therefore merely pass and stand motionless rather than pass and move. After Arsenal thrashed them 6-0, David Moyes had two tasks to complete. The first was to create a tactical plan that the players could carry out, and the second was to use his man-management abilities to inspire the players. He didn’t do either.
Professional pride was there, of course, but the players’ dissatisfaction showed up as a lack of discipline. Although Kalvin Phillips’ farewell will receive a lot of attention, focusing only on that will obscure the larger disciplinary concerns. In other words, they were all in it.
Absence of self-control
Mohammed Kudus was booked early on, which gave West Ham an abundance of cards. It was appropriate to give Zouma two yellows, and Coufal had to resort to acting before receiving a real fat lip. The numerous cards were actually an indication that players were searching for a place to hide because none could be located inside the doomed tactical framework.
Maybe the board doesn’t view the team as the demoralized set of players they obviously are, or maybe they are expecting Moyes to turn things around like he did the previous season. But this season isn’t like the prior one. Last season, when the manager lacked true leadership, the team could always count on Declan Rice to get us through close games. Kurt Zouma is no longer a leader, and there isn’t a clear cut option.
We also had Mark Warburton, who was not afraid to tell Moyes what was on his mind, and the wonderful Paul Nevin, who was an expert on set pieces. Above all, though, the manager could still count on his players to trust his messages and his strategies. Sadly, that has since disappeared, and who can really blame them? Given that the team has given up 11 goals and not scored any in the previous three games, it is hard to believe that Moyes’ tactical views carry any weight.
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