Micah Richards praises ‘brilliant’ but ‘lucky’ West Ham United for win v Aston Villa live on Match of the Day 2
Micah Richards has praised West Ham manager David Moyes for changing his tactics against Aston Villa, despite labelling their goal as “lucky”.
The Hammers claimed their first win and goal of the season when Pablo Fornals’ strike deflected off Ezri Konsa and looped over Emi Martinez, as the side kept their first clean sheet of the campaign too for all three points.
But speaking live on Match of the Day 2, Richards praised the decision to change from a back five system at half-time and said the build up play before the goal was “brilliant”, meaning the team earned their luck.
“The first half was tedious at times to be honest,” he said. “I think David Moyes knows that he started with that five at the back, some might say three with wing backs, but in this shape it was a five.
“The second half was completely different. Brought on Benrahma, Emerson came off, and what that allowed them to do was just get further up the pitch. Have an offensive player up there getting in these little pockets of space and getting an effort on goal.
“This was the brilliant part. Antonio came on, obviously disappointed that he’s not starting, makes that run to create the space for Fornals and yes the goal was a little bit lucky, but you’ve got to create that luck and they certainly got that. Ultimately that was the difference in the game today.”
Flexible
Something that Moyes has worked hard on this summer is bringing in quality players to improve the depth of the squad, giving him plenty of options to work with.
That was on show in this game, with three summer signings starting the game in Thilo Kehrer, Emerson Palmieri and Gianluca Scamacca all starting in a 5-2-3 formation, before changes saw them revert to a 4-3-3 system with more familiar players in the side.
Having the flexibility to switch between systems and with lots of quality options in the squad is a huge benefit to Moyes when he wants to turn things around and it will help to earn plenty of points throughout the season.
West Ham are finally on the board in the league now and they will look to build on that momentum when they face Tottenham on Wednesday, with lots of decisions for the boss to make as to how best to approach the game.