Former Premier League striker Noel Whelan has claimed that David Moyes needs to find out the composition of West Ham United’s best attack to help avoid being sacked in the coming weeks.
The 59-year-old’s team fell to another disappointing Premier League defeat on Sunday as they lost 1-0 to Everton at Goodison Park. It was the Toffees’ first top-flight win of the campaign, while the Hammers’ poor form domestically this term continued.
The east London club remain 18th and in the relegation zone as the season enters its first international break.
Perhaps more worrying is that the Irons have only netted three goals in their first seven games, the joint-lowest in the division, and Whelan has now claimed Moyes is yet to work out how best to set up his team at the top of the pitch.
The 47-year-old told Football Insider: “These are a massive three games coming up. Moyes was very honest in his interview after the Everton game, he said they didn’t do enough to win.
“They had opportunities, but they had to be more clinical. They haven’t found the right combination up front just yet either.
“He keeps chopping and changing. I don’t think he knows his best front-line himself at the moment.
“Players like Jarrod Bowen aren’t hitting the mark at the moment – and all of these things are contributing to their struggles at the moment.
“Moyes will be looking at these games now, Wolves, Fulham, and Southampton – and thinking that he needs maximum points out of at least two of those games in order to be comfortable.”
Last season’s top scorer in the league for West Ham with 12 goals, Jarrod Bowen is yet to get off the mark in the top flight this term. Meanwhile, Michail Antonio – who finished second in the scoring charts in 2021/22 (10) – is one of only three players to score a solitary goal for the Irons domestically this season.
With £35.5m summer signing Gianluca Scamacca often on the bench, one would be forgiven for wondering why he is not being thrust in from the start in the Premier League, having scored three goals in four starts in Europe.
The Italian centre-forward has been in Moyes’ starting XI just once in the league, during the 1-0 win over Aston Villa, although he had subsequently been dealing with an illness.
Scamacca, who netted 16 Serie A goals in 36 appearances last season, made his return against Everton on Sunday but only managed four touches in 20 minutes (SofaScore), failing to work a shooting opportunity and receiving a yellow card.
With more than a week remaining until the visit of the equally goal-shy Wolves, Moyes has plenty of time to consider the composition of his attack for that game, as the result against Bruno Lage’s team could go a long way towards determining the path along which the Hammers go for the rest of the autumn and beyond.
