West Ham United drew 1-1 with Aston Villa in the Premier League today, and David Moyes addressed the media after the match.
David Moyes would have been desperate for three points against Aston Villa in the Premier League today, but his West Ham side were unable to get the job done in the end.
The Hammers huffed and puffed and actually nearly won the game in the dying minutes, only for the goal to be disallowed.
Could Moyes have done more to force Villa’s hand though?
There were some West Ham fans questioning the Scot’s decision to bring Ben Johnson on to replace Michail Antonio after 66 minutes.
Well, now Moyes has explained exactly why he made the change…
David Moyes answers burning question after West Ham vs Aston Villa draw
The Scot addressed the media after today’s 1-1 draw with the Villans at the London Stadium.
And Moyes responded when asked why he took off his centre-forward and replaced him with a right-back, as quoted by WHUFC.com:
“Mick has played 70 minutes in midweek and another 60-odd today, so we’re trying to manage it. We’ve also got other people with fresh legs who we want to get on the pitch and give them minutes as well, but I thought it was just the right time to see if we could freshen it up. They were the better team at the time and we couldn’t keep the ball and weren’t getting up the pitch too quickly, so trying to find other ways of doing it was what we tried to do, but he did a good job for us, Mick, and scored a really good goal.”
I totally understand what Moyes is trying to say here, but that doesn’t mean I agree with the substitution that he made.
Bringing Antonio off and replacing him with Johnson helped to give Villa a real foothold in the game, and we were on the back foot for the remainder of the match.
That said, had our injury time goal stood, nobody would be questioning the manager – that is the nature of elite level football.
David Moyes probably would have been happy with a point against Aston Villa in the end, but I really feel like West Ham could have won the game.
READ ALSO:
‘What a player’ Lucas Paqueta says West Ham have a seriously talented teenager on our hands
West Ham dealt major blow ahead of Bayer Leverkusen quarter-final, Moyes’ reaction said it all
Paqueta did something really embarrassing when he got subbed off for v Freiburg in Europa League
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox
