WHZ View: The secret to Moyes’ success at West Ham
West Ham moved back into the Champions League spaces on Sunday afternoon with a second successive 3-2 victory in the Premier League.
The win was significant for several reasons, none more so than staying in the race for Europe’s elite competition. We’re now just seven games away from everything we were promised when moving to the London Stadium.
Seven cup finals for the lads to dig in deep and grind out results. It appears we’ll have to go it without some key figures, though. Maybe a few more after what happened yesterday. Aaron Cresswell and Mark Noble both exited play with injuries in the second half.
The win goes to show how far we’ve come in such a short space of time under David Moyes and his backroom staff. The character of this crop of players is second to none; there’s a real sense of togetherness in the group and it’s showing in the results.
Cracking character
When Noble left the pitch he handed the armband to the referee Anthony Taylor. It’s only at that point we began to consider, who’s going to lead the side through the inevitable onslaught?
Declan Rice, Angelo Ogbonna and Cresswell (in that order) would be the usual players to take leadership, but none were on the pitch.
Deservedly it was given to Fabianski, who moments before had performed heroics and prevented a Leicester second. The big Pole rushed out to Ricardo and dived at his feet, preventing a shot from close range.
In previous seasons, West Ham have been incapable of defeating sides around them. Things are very different this year, a lot of credit goes to the players. The mentality has changed, some put this down to the influence of Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal.
This could well be it, the two have brought an elite winning mentality, and are used to playing in the European competitions. But as we stare down the barrel at more injuries, it made us think, we haven’t felt sorry for ourselves at all.
West Ham are currently without their captain, vice-captain, two best defenders and only out and out striker. Our response? To play out of our skin and stick three past the side third in the table. As supporters, we couldn’t be more proud.
Every time we’ve had a setback this season the squad have just got on with it. Moyes hasn’t once moaned about any decisions or injuries suffered to his side. The squad don’t moan, either. Seeing Rice on the edge of his seat showed how much this means to the players.
To even be in the mix of Champions League football is ludicrous to us Hammers fans. Whatever happens from now, this will go down as one of the best seasons in the history of the club.
In other West Ham news, here are three things we learned as the Hammers defeated Leicester in the Premier League.