Gabby Agbonlahor gives verdict on whether David Moyes should be sacked at West Ham United amid mounting pressure
After a poor start to the Premier League campaign and an embarrassing cup defeat to Blackburn Rovers, David Moyes finds himself under pressure at West Ham.
West Ham’s success in the Europa Conference League this season may be the only factor keeping Moyes in his job at the London Stadium.
Other than the Hammers’ perfect group stage record in Europe, Moyes has witnessed his side drop down to 15th in the Premier League and the misery was only worsened by a penalty shootout defeat to Blackburn Rovers this week that saw West Ham bow out of the Carabao Cup.
Domestically, West Ham have been nothing short of awful and fingers are starting to be pointed at Moyes. But while pressure continues to grow on the Scotsman’s shoulders, Gabby Agbonlahor insisted he deserves more time.
Speaking to talkSPORT, Agbonlahor said: “Even if West Ham finish midtable this season – 11th, 10th, 12th – I think he’s [Moyes] got time.
“He did so well with them last season and in the Europa League, and you’ve got to look at players that need to start performing. [Lucas] Paqueta they’ve brought in needs to do more. [Pablo] Fornals, [Manuel] Lanzini when they get a chance. [Jarrod] Bowen needs to be in better form. [Gianluca] Scamacca scored a few goals and then started to do flicks and started to have himself a bit.
“These players are letting him down. They need to do more.”
Room for improvement
There is certainly an argument for players underperforming this season. Bowen in particular looks a shadow of himself compared to last season, while usually reliable performers in Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal have also endured drops in form.
They’ve posed questions to Moyes that he’d never had to answer at the London Stadium. He needed to adapt and find a new XI that was able to perform. He got it right in Europe but is still failing to crack the code in the Premier League.
So yes, players do need to step up and perform better on an individual basis – but that doesn’t remove the blame entirely from Moyes.
Many of his decisions in the Premier League have been questionable of late, most noticeably his treatment of Said Benrahma. With so many players out of form, you’d expect Moyes to put faith in the one player consistently performing for the Hammers – yet Benrahma is still struggling to complete 90 minutes without being hooked off.
He’s also struggling to get the best out of Scamacca, and it seems strange that Moyes is so hesitant to just play the Italian as an out-and-out No.9 – and even more reluctant to play him alongside Michail Antonio when chasing games.
So many of Moyes’ decisions have contributed to moans and groans around the London Stadium, and he has to take responsibility for that. Sacking, for now, is out of the question – but things have to improve quickly.