Four West Ham United players surely set for exit after shocker v Liverpool
James Murray is a lifelong West Ham fan and a current season ticket holder in the Billy Bonds Stand. He’s seen some incredible talents – as well as several forgettable names – don the famous claret and blue shirt since his first game 25 years ago. He’s now putting his passion for West Ham into words with a regular fan view for West Ham Zone…
The West Ham defeat against Liverpool was nothing short of a disgrace.
It isn’t too often that the Hammers progress through into the latter rounds of domestic competitions, with our last semi-final appearance in the Carabao Cup coming in 2014 against Manchester City.
That’s why many of the supporters had earmarked the quarter-final clash against the Reds on Wednesday (20 December) as a huge game for the club.
But the 5-1 defeat at Anfield after David Moyes made six changes to his side has only added fuel to the fire as a number of Irons fans want to see the back of the Scotsman.
There is no doubt that his time at the London Stadium has been a massive success when compared to the failures of his predecessors.
He will undoubtedly go down as one of the best managers the club has ever had, having qualified for Europe three seasons in a row and claimed the Europa Conference League trophy with a dramatic victory over Fiorentina in June.
But that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable for Moyes to name a side that was simply never going to be capable of coming away from Anfield – an absolute fortress for Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp – with a win to take them into the final four.
Amongst those named in the starting lineup were defenders Angelo Ogbonna and defender Ben Johnson as well as attacking players Pablo Fornals and Said Benrahma – all of whom have seen their minutes in the side dramatically reduced this season.
For Dominik Szoboszlai’s opening goal, Benrahma gave the ball away cheaply inside his own half before Johnson failed to close down the midfielder before he unleashed an excellent strike from long distance.
While Ogbonna has been an incredible servant for the club, he looked well out of his depth at Anfield, with Curtis Jones pretty much walking the ball past him for his side’s fifth goal of the night.
Fornals was also way off it as his game has also gone well off the boil over the past year as the Spanish midfielder recorded just 32 touches, a 64 per cent pass success rate and gave the ball away 11 times [SofaScore].
None of those four players did anything to show why they should remain at West Ham despite previously putting in some excellent performances for the club as each of them appears to be on the decline.
The only case that could be put forward is for Benrahma after his form has only just started going downhill, but he showed absolutely nothing in his lazy display at Anfield to suggest he still wants to play for the club.
It’s time for us to freshen things up and bring in some quality depth.
In other West Ham news, Simon Jordan has hit back at Jim White over David Sullivan questions.