The West Ham vs Brighton Premier League clash at the London Stadium ended up in a 0-0 draw last night.
West Ham United earned a hard-fought point against a silky Brighton side, and we ended the festive period in sixth spot in the Premier League table.
Hammers boss David Moyes was unable to call upon five first-team players for the Seagulls clash, with the likes of Mohammed Kudus, Lucas Paqueta and Nayef Aguerd all missing out.
The West Ham performance vs Brighton wasn’t very good at all, but we defended remarkably well as a team, and Moyes praised his goalkeeper, full-backs and centre-backs when speaking to reporters after the match.
The big worry for Moyes and the fans is that aside from the defenders, the fringe players who came into the side were absolutely atrocious. They are all so far off the pace, and the Scot must realise that a big reshuffle is needed, if we are to complete on all fronts over the next few years.
Pablo Fornals and Said Benrahma came into the side last night and in truth, they were both pretty poor. However, the Algerian at least had a few bright moments in the latter stages of the first-half and early on in the second period, whilst the Spaniard absolutely stunk the place out.
So with that in mind, Moyes’s 73rd minute substitution was a really strange one…
Moyes made baffling decision during West Ham vs Brighton
With around 20 minutes still to play, Moyes hooked Benrahma and brought Divin Mubama on to replace him.
Nothing wrong with bringing the 19-year-old on, but why on earth wasn’t Fornals taken off instead of Benny?
It was an utterly bizarre decision from Moyes – the Spaniard was woeful against Brighton and pretty much everything he did put us under pressure defensively.
I can’t accept the argument that Fornals offers us more defensively than Benrahma does either. The Algerian tracked back numerous times inside the first-half to help out his teammate Emerson.
And whilst the former Brentford man has been really poor for us this season, he was still much more of a threat than his Spanish teammate inside the final third.
Moyes decided to hook Benny instead of Pablo during the West Ham vs Brighton clash last night, and that decision may well have cost us any chance we had of winning the game.
Hopefully the Scot realises that when he re-watches the full 90 minutes today.
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