BT Sport pundit baffled as David Moyes leaves Danny Ings sitting on West Ham United bench
Tony Dorigo cannot see the logic in West Ham buying “genuine centre forward” Danny Ings only for David Moyes to leave him on the bench.
The January signing from Aston Villa has only featured four times in the Premier League since his move, after suffering an injury in his first game for the club.
But in the past three matches the Hammers have only scored twice while the 30-year-old has only been given 50 minutes total off the bench, and BT Sport pundit Dorigo believes the decision to leave the goalscoring to out-of-form Michail Antonio alone is making relegation more of a risk than necessary.
In his column for The Times Dorigo wrote on Monday (20 February): “West Ham United have had two London derbies over the past two weekends and were passive in both.
“Michail Antonio led the line against Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, but he is a winger converted into a striker. He also has one goal in his last ten games.
“Danny Ings, meanwhile, is a genuine centre forward but started on the bench for both matches. I am not sure why he was bought in January if he is going to have that role. Starting him up front with Antonio would help West Ham to get on the front foot more often.
“David Moyes is a loyal manager who does not like much change and there seems to be a presumption that he will guide West Ham away from the relegation zone.
“I do not think they will go down, but their reluctance to get on the front foot could make it closer than necessary.”
Conservative
Yes, West Ham had looked better in recent weeks and Ings was coming back from an injury, but Moyes’ squad management has been baffling at times this season.
Spending £15million in January on a striker and then not using him is hard to understand, and smacks of the Scot leaving Flynn Downes out virtually all season despite Tomas Soucek playing poorly.
Over the past couple of seasons Moyes has managed to get a squad light on numbers to function well above the sum of their parts and had a good amount of success.
He was widely seen as needing reinforcements to get to the next level, but having been provided with a haul of new faces this season he hasn’t known what to do with them and fans are growing sick of it.
He appears to have been torn between sticking with what he has known for the past two seasons, and trying to become more expansive with his new options.
The result is the worst of both worlds, as it isn’t getting the best out of the likes of Lucas Paqueta and Gianluca Scamacca, let alone Ings, and his past stars like Antonio, Jarrod Bowen and Declan Rice have regressed.
There is without doubt plenty in this squad to avoid relegation, and while injuries and luck have played a part the manager has to take responsibility for the season as a whole because it is now a very real threat.
As for most of the season, two or three wins would change the complexion greatly, but the overall fear that the manager hasn’t got a tactical plan that makes use of his options will linger far longer.