What did David Moyes seriously expect when fielding 194-year-old defence in the latest sign that he has lost the plot at West Ham.
The Premier League is arguably more fiercely competitive than ever before and complacent West Ham are finding that out to their cost this season.
Moyes has done a marvellous job with the Hammers. But no manager is beyond reproach and after just 13 wins in his last 44 Premier League games, the Scot is rightly under severe pressure.
It is starting to feel like a case of when rather than if Moyes is sacked by West Ham.
And when we look back and reflect on his and the team’s demise it would be hard to see past one particularly baffling decision in that defeat to Brentford.
Moyes had seven long weeks to reassess, plan, make changes and devise a new system during the World Cup break.
But rather than inject some freshness into the side, Moyes stuck to the same old team selection and setup that hasn’t worked all season and for much of the last campaign too.
Moyes has regularly declared he wants to build West Ham around young, hungry players.
After spending £170m on eight signings in the summer the Hammers now officially have the OLDEST squad in the top flight.
That in itself should have set alarm bells ringing for West Ham’s owners. And it is no coincidence that the team leading the way at the top of the Premier League – Arsenal – has the youngest squad.
When all is said and done questions will be asked about where it all went wrong for West Ham’s previously untouchable manager.
But what did Moyes seriously expect when fielding a 194-year-old defence in the latest sign that he has lost the plot at West Ham?
Aaron Cresswell enjoyed a season-long renaissance when Moyes first returned to West Ham. And he has been a great servant to the Hammers.
But the brutal truth is – like so many before him – Cresswell should have been replaced and upgraded years ago. And at almost any other ambitious club with a proper plan and philosophy in place, he would have been.
Full-backs are perhaps one of the most important positions on the team in modern football.
They must be quick and able to get up and down and have a big impact on the attacking side of the game, contributing with goals and assists.
Cresswell has no place in a Premier League starting XI. Emerson has been one of the most pointless signings in West Ham’s modern history – as Chelsea fans warned he would be – Vladimir Coufal is looking increasingly like a one-season wonder, Craig Dawson’s head is not in the game and there have been question marks over the ageing Lukasz Fabianski.
Yes Moyes has injury issues with Nayef Aguerd and Kurt Zouma but there was no excuse for the back six he put out against Brentford.
Fabianski (37), Coufal (30), Dawson (32), Ogbonna (34), Cresswell (33) and Emerson (28) have a combined age of nearly 200 years old.
That’s an average age between those six players of over 32.
So should we be surprised at the painfully slow reactions when West Ham conceded from a throw-in. Or the embarrassing lack of pace and power from Cresswell when the entire backline was undone by a simple 20-yard ball over the top in behind?
Let that sink in, West Ham’s defensive line against Brentford had a combined age of nearly TWO CENTURIES old.
How has this been allowed to happen?
Yes Aguerd and Zouma dramatically improve that. But Moyes could and should have long since integrated brilliant young right-back Harrison Ashby into the side. Instead the academy graduate is so disillusioned he is refusing to sign a new deal and looks set to leave us for Newcastle this month.
Thilo Kehrer may be hapless at centre-back but he is indisputably a better, quicker, younger option than Coufal at right-back.
Did we really need to play a back five against Brentford anyway for goodness sake? Surely that should have been the setup when facing Arsenal away?
Alphonse Areola in goal with Kehrer or Ashby at right-back, Dawson and Ogbonna in the middle and Cresswell or Emerson at left-back in a four would have given West Ham an extra midfielder or attacker.
Nothing Moyes does anymore makes much sense.
But fielding a 194-year-old defence for a must-win game against a young, vibrant team takes the biscuit.
And this guy doesn’t think we need to make signings in January.
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