Danny Murphy wants David Moyes to get West Ham United chance for ‘huge’ run of games
The next three games of West Ham United’s season could be “huge” for David Moyes’ future as the club’s manager, Danny Murphy believes.
The Irons were beaten 2-0 by Brentford on 30 December to make their Premier League standing even more precarious with just one point separating them and the drop zone.
Murphy, though, is keen to see the Scotsman get the chance to turn things around domestically despite pressure being ramped up on him from the fans.
“They’ve been on a terrible run and criticism is always fair when you are losing games in the Premier League, irrelevant of what you have done before,” Murphy said on Match of the Day. “But if any manager deserves some extra time, it is David Moyes.
“He moved Paqueta next to Rice and left Soucek out, a lot of fans had been asking for that. He changed the system and last night was better.
“But I think the next three games are going to be defining for him because the fans are agitated. They’ve got Leeds, Wolves and Everton coming up, huge fixtures for them.
“We know they have got the quality, Aguerd we saw at the World Cup and he was tremendous but he hasn’t kicked a ball yet, Zouma has been missing, Ogbonna has only just come back. You’ve got to get those players fit.”
Writing on the wall
Ideally, Moyes would have a handy transfer budget to work with in the January window so he can try to unlock this squad’s goal-scoring ability but that looks highly unlikely after so much was spent in the summer.
Gianluca Scamacca, Michail Antonio, Jarrod Bowen and others have to take a hard look at themselves as to why they have not scored the goals they have done previously, whether at West Ham or not.
Moyes has been relying on those names, in particular, to provide the firepower to keep the Hammers challenging for European places as they have been in the past two seasons.
Defensive injuries might not have helped but the Irons have been relatively solid this season but it has only taken one goal to cause major concern with such a lack of goals.
Luckily, these next three league games are the perfect medicine for poor form and West Ham must take full advantage of it and pick up at least six points to keep Moyes in the job.