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What Moyes Needs To Do To Turn The Club Around?

Submitted by little ed on Tue, 28/11/2017 - 12:30

As a stated in a recent Daily Mail article, David Moyes’ appointment as manager has provoked a mixed reaction among West Ham fans, but he may give us the tools we lacked under Slaven Bilic. Moyes has failed to live up to expectations in his last three jobs, and his inability to save Sunderland from the drop is a key reason why some of the Hammers faithful doubt he can do it with us.

That said, the reason we’re now fighting relegation is because we’ve lacked structure, shape and any kind of organisation in the last few months. In contrast to Bilic, Moyes is proven to be very organised. This job will make or break Moyes’ career, so he’ll no doubt be bending over backwards to reverse his fortunes, as well as ours.

We lost 2-0 in Moyes’ first game as boss, so it wasn’t a great start. We’re currently fourth-favourites for relegation amongst the top ten rated at bookmakeradvisor.com – but there’s still time to escape danger. Here are a couple of things the Scot needs to do to turn things around:

Improve fitness

Before Moyes’ appointment, 11 of the 23 goals we conceded went in after 30 minutes. This suggests a lack of stamina and some of the press and have pointed to it as a damning indictment of our players’ fitness. Among our many lethargic displays, we conceded a 96th-minute equaliser against fellow strugglers Crystal Palace, while the same thing happened in the 85th minute of the match against Burnley. And don’t even get me started on that sluggish second half performance in our 3-0 defeat to Brighton.

As he held double training sessions during the international break, we know Moyes is aware of this issue and is taking steps to fix it. While at Everton, Moyes was known to put his players through relentless training exercises to give them an edge in games. As a result, it’s unlikely that he’ll let the intensity drop at West Ham either.
Moyes will also need to improve Andy Carroll’s fitness, as he’s no good to us injured. As long as he stays fit, Carroll should prove a good fit for a manager who likes his teams to get lots of crosses into the box.

Get the team scoring goals

At the end of Bilic’s run as boss, we’d only scored 11 league goals out of 116 shots. So if Moyes can get the forwards firing home more often, that will also be another huge step in the right direction. A potential problem here is that Javier Hernandez is our main striker - and he and Moyes have history. When both Moyes and Chicharito were at Manchester United, the Mexican spent most of his time on the bench. So if there’s any bad blood between the player and the new manager, Moyes needs to nip it in the bud. After all, Hernandez is one of the few good things to happen to West Ham this season, so it’d be a shame if the residual resentment makes its way into the dressing room.
Moyes must also find a way to get the best out of Marko Arnautovic. After a tough start for West Ham, the winger hasn’t hit the back of the net once in the Premier League this season. The Austrian was booed by some of our fans during our loss against Liverpool, and improving his form is perhaps Moyes’ toughest task.

There have been reports that the board have given the new manager permission to offload Arnautovic in January. However, the former Stoke man played well in the defeat against Watford and was arguably the man of the match in the 1-1 draw against Leicester, so there are some signs Moyes is starting to get the best out of him; let’s hope he continues to do so.

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