West Ham vs Bournemouth result: David Moyes’ steady hand guides Hammers to heavy win
West Ham United 4-0 Bournemouth: West Ham and Moyes didn’t do much, didn’t change an awful lot in terms of shape or personal, but everything they did was direct and with a very clear purpose
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Your support makes all the difference.In 2020, David Moyes is probably not the answer to many cries for help from established Premier League sides dreaming of more. But whatever the questions Moyes faced on his somewhat unceremonious return to West Ham, he’s quickly found a way of answering them and readjusting his managerial stock.
West Ham’s 4-0 win against Bournemouth was the trademark David Moyes success story. The passion was back, the football was simple yet effective, the players cared more, and the fans responded.
There was nothing especially spectacular about West Ham’s play, little to get the tactical juices flowing, it was just a hard shift. Mark Noble, a frustrated figure towards the end of Pellegrini’s reign, looked five years younger as he helped himself to two first-half goals. Robert Snodgrass was brilliant throughout, Felipe Anderson looked like a £35m winger again and even Sebastian Haller scored a legitimate goal. The previously lethargic defence tightened up and the team, for the first time in a while, gave the impression that they actually wanted to be here.
Moyes’s appointment was unpopular with the majority of fans largely because a) it’s an admission the last 18 months have been a time-wasting side-step, b) well he’s not a chino-wearing European manager from the Bundesliga that gets supporters excited, and c) it’s David Moyes.
But on this evidence, Moyes is exactly what West Ham need.
There was little to no acknowledgement for the (sort of) new manager as he took his seat in the London Stadium. This was business as usual and this being normal tells you rather a lot about the situation the club is in.
The infamous West Ham Way will take a back seat for the next few months because searching for this unspoken identity is what had West Ham in the bottom three of the Premier League at kick-off on New Year’s Day in the first place. This was a time for going back to basics, no possession for possession’s sake that Manuel Pellegrini bored the players, fans and eventually himself with.
West Ham and Moyes didn’t do much, didn’t change an awful lot in terms of shape or personal, but everything they did was direct and with a very clear purpose.
It’s this that brought about the first goal, and deservedly so. Robert Snodgrass’s industrial foraging created space to waltz into the box and cut the ball back to Noble to fire the home side into the lead via Lewis Cook’s attempted block. Get the ball wide, cross it to men in the middle, simple, everyone on the same page.
The second was similar. Ryan Fredericks’ cross found Haller well and the French forward finished off the move with a shot on the turn as if it was his 16th goal of the season, not his sixth. A 20-minute spell of spirited play brought about the Hammers’ third, this time from the spot after Noble was brought down in the area by Callum Wilson and converted from 12 yards with minimal fuss.
There was, however, still room for individual brilliance in a structured team performance. Anderson had been on something of a soul-searching mission during his spells in and out of the side lately, looking for the spark within that had somewhat died. It took Moyes just over an hour to find this, with the help of a brilliant deep through pass from Declan Rice, wonderfully touched beyond Simon Francis and Anderson made no mistake with the finish. Hugs from teammates, the stadium bouncing, smiles and bubbles all-round. This is more like the West Ham way.
Just about everything went Moyes’ way. Even the pendulum of VAR swung in his direction, downgrading a 75th-minute red card for Aaron Cresswell for a foul on Ryan Fraser that would, pre-VAR days, have been a straight red card with little argument.
It is worth noting that West Ham will face tougher opposition than a Bournemouth side a shadow of its previous self. Leicester, Manchester City and Liverpool twice are all on the agenda in the next seven league games.
Eddie Howe is in something of a rut himself and Bournemouth are heading only one way at the moment. Wilson, who is on his longest run of Premier League games without a goal (13), and Dominic Solanke look like strangers together at the top of the team, Jefferson Lerma can’t control the midfield and the defence simply made up the numbers. Lukas Fabianski’s involvements in the game were few and far between, a save from Diego Rico’s fierce shot just before the break probably the one notable contribution the goalkeeper made.
It would be easy for someone watching their first game of the season to tell which side is in serious trouble, and it’s not the one in claret and blue.
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