David Moyes: West Ham’s fans divided over man who delivered Europa Conference League title

David Moyes prepares to take charge of West Ham against his old club Manchester United at the London Stadium on Saturday with the polarised attitudes around his stint as manager hardening in the wake of the EFL Cup hammering at Liverpool.

The Scot divides opinion in a rather strange way in east London.

After keeping the club up, then being brutally disposed of in favour of Manuel Pellegrini in 2018, Moyes returned ‘home’ in 2019, with the club 17th in the table, one point above the relegation zone, and kept the Hammers in the Premier League again.

On 30 December, he will celebrate four years in charge. His current contract expires at the end of the season.

During that time, he has registered successive top seven finishes for the first time in West Ham’s history. He secured European football for a third consecutive season, something that had never happened before either. In each campaign, including the current one, they finished top of their group and went straight through to the last-16.

In June, Moyes was in charge for one of the most famous nights in West Ham’s entire history when they beat Fiorentina to win the Europa Conference League in Prague, their first major trophy since the 1980 FA Cup.

Yet even in the aftermath of that success, some West Ham fans said it would be a fitting end to Moyes’ time in charge.

There were more social media calls for him to go after Wednesday’s 5-1 defeat at Anfield. As one Moyes backer ironically put it, ‘I look forward to him being replaced so we can enjoy all those famous wins at Liverpool again like we are used to’. West Ham have won once there in 60 years.

Jurgen Klopp also defended Moyes, making the point in his programme notes ahead of the game.

“I don’t know why but it sometimes feels that David’s work is not always appreciated as much as it should be – but this is certainly not the case for me,” said the Liverpool boss.

“He is a manager who has great experience, knowledge and ability.”

Boring football, wasted money and not playing the kids

To fans of most other clubs, West Ham supporters’ differing views of Moyes are bizarre.

Even the Hammers themselves acknowledge that.

“We are aware of how it looks from the outside,” Gonzo, from the Hammers Chat fan group told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“A lot of us are very grateful for three seasons in Europe, there is no doubt about that.

“The trouble is, in a very short space of time we have moved from a 34,000-capacity stadium to one where we regularly get 55,000, and which could increase to 66,000. David Moyes has spent roughly £450m and a lot of the frustration comes from the fact he still relies on 12 to 13 players.

“A lot of money has been wasted over that time and he really struggles to spend money on a striker. Sebastien Haller – £45m. Gianluca Scamacca – £35m. We have relied so much on Michail Antonio. Only recently have we felt that without Michail we can start to do something.

“You also have a situation where West Ham has the best crop of young players it has had for a very long time; we won the FA Youth Cup, are second in Premier League 2, are unbeaten in the Premier League International Cup.

“It is a bunch of 17 and 18-year-olds who are beating not only 21-year-olds but adult teams in the EFL Trophy (West Ham are one of two Premier League teams left in the competition and play Wycombe in the last-16 next month). But he doesn’t give youngsters a chance.

“Sometimes we can have a whole half of football and not have a shot on target. Things like that feed into it. The London Stadium is a long way from the pitch. You need a brand of football that can really encourage noise in there.

“It is hard to watch. It is not even two banks of four. It is a four and a five. We don’t attack. But he is doing really well at the moment. I can’t explain it more than that.”

At Liverpool on Wednesday, in a team showing six changes from the one that beat Wolves in their previous Premier League game, West Ham had two shots, both in the second half. Nineteen-year-old striker Divin Mubama, star of the FA Youth Cup-winning team, remained on the bench throughout.

Unrealistic expectations?

The Premier League is an unforgiving environment.

If West Ham were to beat Manchester United, they would move above their opponents and into sixth.

West Ham last had the majority of possession in a domestic match on 12 November, when they beat Nottingham Forest 3-2. They have beaten Arsenal and Tottenham over the past two months with less than 30% possession. The Forest game – since when West Ham have played eight times, winning five – was the last time they had 10 shots or more in a game.

At Anfield, Moyes bristled when he was asked if his decision to leave out so many players, including Lucas Paqueta, James Ward-Prowse and Nayef Aguerd, who was ill, opened him up to criticism.

“It’s a pretty cheap question to ask when the only teams who’ve played more games than us over three years are Liverpool and Manchester City,” he said.

“We’ve had the quickest turnaround of any team in the Premier League, only two days, we’ve played more games, and we have a match on Saturday lunchtime.”

A sizeable number of the 6,000-strong travelling support at Anfield are sympathetic to that. Others, evidently, less so.

When he assesses what West Ham are now to what they were when he arrived, nearly four years ago, Moyes feels he has nothing to apologise for.

“You have to earn respect and I’m no different from everyone else,” he said. “If people want to give it that’s down to them but the facts are we’ve been doing pretty well.

“What would West Ham’s expectations be? Would you expect us to win a European trophy? Would you expect us to be challenging for the Champions League? Not many nodding their head in here (news conference) so that’s the facts.

“We’ve had an unbelievable run. We’ll keep trying to win as many games as we can, we’ll keep trying to challenge top teams and challenge in cup competitions when we get the opportunity to do so.”