'You're getting sacked in the morning': West Ham fans turn on David Moyes
As abject West Ham United – outclassed in every area of the field by a sometimes dazzling Brighton & Hove Albion – trudged off the field, the few away supporters remaining hurled vitriol at those players who dared to thank them.
Earlier, those fans, baffled by Moyes’s cautious substitutions, had chanted the withdrawn Said Benrahma’s name and suggested to their manager that “you don’t know what you’re doing”. When Moyes’s second substitution replaced one centre half with another, the same chant rang out again with a side order of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” as the home support chipped in on harmony vocals.
“It wasn’t good, admitted Moyes. “We’ve not had too many days as bad as this. I totally understand the fans’ reaction, but I’m the one who makes the decisions. They’ve been watching a really good team, where we’ve finished sixth and seventh and reached a semi-final in Europe: clubs such as Brighton, Fulham and Brentford would love to be in that position. It’s hard for them to come and watch that performance.”
Four-nil last week. Same again this week. In scoreline, if nothing else, West Ham are consistent. After comfortably disposing of Nottingham Forest last week, they were annihilated by Brighton this week.
With a Europa Conference trip to AEK Larnaca on the horizon and Aston Villa visiting on Sunday, Moyes sidestepped any notions of his potential departure, but not for the first time this season, a wretched showing has invited speculation about his position.
West Ham were fairly comfortable until Ben Johnson, whose afternoon had not yet reached its nadir, allowed Solly March’s crossfield pass to sail over him. As head coach Roberto De Zerbi, serving a one-game touchline ban, looked on from the stands, Kaoru Mitoma collected and charged into the area. Jarrod Bowen bundled him over. Alexis Mac Allister thrashed the penalty past Alphonse Areola, in for the injured Lukasz Fabianski and making his first league start in 14 months.
Starting ahead of Robert Sanchez, Jason Steele calmed whatever nerves he had with fine saves with his foot from Bowen and Tomas Soucek, but West Ham struggled to match Brighton in midfield, where Moises Caicedo – who signed a four-year deal on Friday – Pascal Gross and Mac Allister were defensively and offensively imperious, while Mitoma always had too much for Johnson on Brighton’s left.
Brighton settled things as early as the 51st minute. March’s corner was nodded on by Mac Allister and, as Johnson looked on at the back post, Joel Veltman had all the time in the world to chest in.
As the game sped away from them, West Ham lost their heads. Both Soucek and Declan Rice might have seen a different card to yellow after crude challenges and it was three when Mitoma scored the goal he deserved, sliding in at the near post ahead of Johnson to tap in Gross’s low cross. “A tough day for Ben,” conceded Moyes. “He’s having to learn on the job. Hopefully he learned a lot today.”
There was time for a fourth when Danny Welbeck collected Mac Allister’s cute pass, shrugged off Flynn Downes’s feeble challenge and fired past Areola.
What now? Upwardly mobile, Brighton have Europe in their sights and as De Zerbi noted: “We were fantastic, but we can get better. We are serious people.”
West Ham’s short and medium term are much less clear: what is clear is that they cannot go on like this.
