West Ham United’s £20million new boy Jarrod Bowen has pinpointed the games they must win to survive.
West Ham are in the relegation zone with 12 games to play.
David Moyes was heavily criticised by many supporters and pundits for negative tactics in a 2-0 defeat to Manchester City last time out.
Moyes went to the Etihad in damage limitation mode. He left out over £130million worth of talent and the Hammers failed to muster an attack worthy of mention let alone a shot on target.
Moyes criticised for no contest performance
It even prompted calls from some to sack the Scot and replace him with Sam Allardyce before it is too late.
West Ham have won just one of the eight Premier League games since Moyes’s unpopular return to the club in December.
Games are running out for West Ham to save their skin.
But Bowen has told the club’s official website exactly what he and his teammates need to do to stay up.
£20m new boy Bowen pinpoints games Hammers must win to survive
“It’s just the quality to win football games now and those fine margins that when chances come, we’ve got to take them and be more ruthless and when we play against those teams around us, we’ve got to be picking up three points against them,” Bowen told whufc.com.
“There is a tough run of games but the pressure is not on us at Anfield as no-one expects us to get anything from the game, so we can use that to our advantage before going into the final run when we play a lot of teams in the bottom half and we expect to pick up points and get ourselves out of this position.”
If the Liverpool match goes according to form then West Ham will be faced with having to win at least five games from the last 11 to avoid the drop.
West Ham’s tall order
Six of those are against teams currently in the bottom half.
But the problem is they will be fighting for their lives too.
Moyes’s cautious and bizarre team selection and tactics have come home to roost.
West Ham may have left themselves with too much to do.
The Hammers have already proved time and again they buckle under pressure this season.
So building up five or six games against teams around them as cup finals is not the way to go.
Remaining fixtures:
Liverpool (A)
Southampton (H)
Arsenal (A)
Wolves (H)
Tottenham (A)
Chelsea (H)
Newcastle (A)
Burnley (H)
Norwich (A)
Watford (H)
Man United (A)
Aston Villa (H)
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