West Ham surely have David Moyes sack decision to make after Aston Villa rout
David Moyes has a lot of credit in the bank at West Ham.
And it is pretty deserved. After all, it was less than five months ago that the Hammers were celebrating European success in the Europa Conference League by beating Fiorentina in the final in Prague.
But the 4-1 rout at the hands of Aston Villa seemed to open up a long-standing argument in the fanbase. Moyes in or Moyes out.
This was exemplified perfectly by two separate comments from West Ham fans on BBC Sport’s live blog coverage of the game on Sunday (22 October).
The first, Andy, wrote: “Right, Moyes’ time is up. One dimensional, no backup plan, benches the best players to make a point because he didn’t choose to sign them, poor substitutions, plays defensively but can’t coach a defence. We should be building but we’re getting worse by the season.”
A report from a second, named Tom, read: “Calm down Andy. Wanting Moyes out is ludicrous given where we are and where we’ve come from. Sure, today was a pretty poor performance and result but it’s a blip, not season-defining. We’ve had a good start to the season, we’ve scored in every game in every competition. We’re in Europe for the third season in a row, which is mad! Common factor. Moyes. In Moyes we trust.”
So is it a blip? Or is it a sign that Moyes, a steady hand he may be, is incapable of taking a West Ham side blessed with talent to the next level.
The jury is probably still out on that one, there has to be some management of expectations even if the Hammers are in Europe for a third straight season.
His decision to keep benching Mohammed Kudus, a big-money summer signing from Ajax, is particularly baffling. The Ghana international is a gifted player and keeping him out of the starting XI is making less and less sense as the weeks go by.
But in the other camp, West Ham have made a steady start to the season and it is hardly crisis time at the London Stadium.
Ultimately, though, there are big ambitions at West Ham, already it seems as though there is a sack decision to be made on Moyes in the coming weeks.
In other West Ham news, here are our player ratings from the Aston Villa game.