Bodyguard Tomas Soucek intervenes for David Moyes again as West Ham get the job done despite another turgid display.
Tomas Soucek is proving to be David Moyes’ Kevin Costner but Whitney Houston we have a problem.
And that is West Ham’s shocking inability to put a performance together for 90 minutes.
Hammers fans have watched some woeful fare of late. And this last gasp victory away at Serbian side Backa Topola continued a concerning theme.
But of course when all is said and done winning is what matters most. And West Ham made it four on the bounce in all competitions to leave them top of their Europa League group going into the final game at home to Freiburg.
Bodyguard Soucek intervened for Moyes again as West Ham get the job done despite another turgid display.
Bodyguard Soucek intervenes for Moyes again
At half-time Joe Cole described West Ham’s performance as ‘appalling dross’. He wasn’t wrong either.
Moyes has publicly stated several times it is his job to raise expectations at West Ham.
Winning a first trophy for 43 years has done that. And the Scot must live with those raised epectations.
This was West Ham’s 18th win from their last 20 European matches. That is some record.
And without four star players in Jarrod Bowen, Mohammed Kudus, Edson Alvarez and Michail Antonio West Ham were always going to have to grind out a performance.
There’s no hiding that is was like watching paint dry, though.
And several players on the fringes can have no complaints about their lack of game time on this showing.
It was good old reliable Soucek who saved Moyes again, though, volleying home Maxwel Cornet’s cross from the right – an eerily similar move to the Czech’s last minute winner against Burnley at the weekend.
West Ham get job done despite another turgid display
That is Soucek’s third late winner for West Ham in a row now after his strike against Forest too.
And he scored in both of Czech Republic’s games in the international break too.
Soucek also saved Moyes by getting the winner during an awful performance at League One Lincoln in the Carabao Cup.
But there’s only so many bullets his bodyguard can take.
If Moyes wants a future at West Ham beyond this season he needs to get this team playing fluid attacking football and with some style.
Because at the moment individuals are helping the Hammers get by over performances. And there’s no future in that for the team or the manager.
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