Premier League
West Ham United and the arrival of the Messiah
Published
2 years agoon
By
Maria KeaneWest Ham United don’t have any superstars, they don’t play exciting football, but they annoy the top clubs in the Premier League and play for a place in the Champions League. A credit to the coach David Moyes, who was already considered a failure and is now celebrated as the messiah.
You don’t have that every day: You’re sitting in your little office and the Messiah comes in through the door. What do you do as a polite host? Clear. He and his disciple are offered a beer. He nods, sits on the small faux-leather sofa in the corner, and has a bottle of supermarket beer.
Russell Penn, coach of English sixth division club Kidderminster Harriers, had this honor a few days ago. There were bottles for the guests, but the can remained for him. He also needed something stronger as he was on the verge of knocking a Premier League club out of the FA Cup with his amateur squad, but the Messiah had objected.
By the 90th minute, Kidderminster was leading 1-0 against West Ham United. Then Declan Rice scored in added time to make it 1-1. As they mentally prepared for the penalty shootout, Jarrod Bowen scored the 2-1 in the 120th minute to win the London visitors.
David Moyes is West Ham United’s Moyesiah
But the winners of hearts were the Kidderminster lads, who fought valiantly and were so close to the sensation. It goes without saying that the Messiah comes by and congratulates.
The Messiah is David Moyes, but West Ham United fans have long stopped addressing him that way. For them he is Moyesiah. Based on the English Messiah.
“If there are nicknames out there I’ve had a lot of bad ones so I’m happy to take that one if it’s given to me,” says Moyes, with the widest grin the Scot has to offer. It’s just too beautiful what the 58-year-old coach is experiencing to refuse this affection.
Moyes has long been considered a failed coach. Whether as the successor to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, whether as a coach of Real Sociedad or at AFC Sunderland. He came with doubt and left with ridicule. When he took over at West Ham United in December 2019, many fans sang the farewell to their notoriously relegated club. Now they just sing Moyesiah, Moyesiah!
The times of Carlos Tevez and Co. are over
Moyes managed the transformation from relegation candidate to Champions League aspirant. West Ham finished sixth last season – ahead of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal – and qualified for the Europa League. Now West Ham is fifth and fighting for the first Champions League entry in the club’s history.
Looking at the squad, one wonders how Moyes managed to torpedo the usual Premier League standings with a side lacking any superstars. And probably the answer is also hidden in the question. It’s a blessing for West Ham not to have superstars.
If you look into the past, the traditional club has tried again and again to land big fish. There was the time with Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, there was the time with Javier Hernandez, with Marko Arnautovic, with Andy Carroll. Pinpricks that remained pinpricks and brought no success.
West Ham United score the most goals from corners
Moyes now turned West Ham into a Moyes side. Down-to-earth, informal, inconspicuous. West Ham United don’t play spectacular attacking football, they don’t play their opponents dizzy. Because they can’t.
West Ham United defend and counter at a high level. They stand deep and compact, win the ball and then counterattack at high speed. The team is also very mobile in the backward movement and skillfully closes the spaces. And perhaps the biggest factor: she is fit.
Fitter than most teams in the Premier League. And then there’s the strength with the standards. West Ham United have scored 25 goals from corners since Moyes’ arrival. More than any other club in the league. Jarrod Bowen is one of the best set pieces in the league. “We don’t have a lot of set pieces per game, but when we do, we’re very dangerous – also thanks to Jarrod,” says Pablo Fornals.
“They can’t even tie Declan Rice’s shoes”
But it is not surprising that the top performers of this team are mainly at home on the defensive. Above all, there is Declan Rice (23), who played every game from the start of the very successful EM 2021 for England and has been highly courted ever since.
For England legend John Terry it is clear: “There is no better player in the world in his position.” Coach Moyes, who is not otherwise a great talker, has to make an exception with Rice: “I’ve looked at the prices of some players who have gone to other clubs lately and they can’t even tie Declan Rice’s shoes.” Moyes adds: “Rice is worth much, much more!”
But the Englishman is not alone: there is Tomas Soucek (26), who plays alongside the Englishman in midfield. The Czech, who joined from Sparta Prague for €24m, is a weapon in the air and on set pieces. He has already scored 16 goals in 86 games. He and Rice complement each other almost blindly as a midfield duo. Both players are heavily courted, but they don’t pull it away.
West Ham United: A big family – also with Zouma
Rice in particular has not yet been impressed by the millions he could earn many times over elsewhere, because his own club, for which he has played since he was young and feels a strong connection, is finally succeeding: “I play with a smile on my face, go out and lead the team.”
The smile is important at West Ham. “We’re a big family in the dressing room. We trust each other and play for each other,” says Czech Vladimir Coufal.
When defender Kurt Zouma recently spread a video of how he abused his cat, there was a lot of criticism. But the team stood by him. Teammate Michail Antonio stated that he does not condone anything Zouma has done.
But: “I just have to ask everyone out there this question: Is what he did worse than what the people who were convicted of racism did? There are people who have been convicted of racism and caught and played football after that. They got an eight-game penalty or something like that. Now people are demanding that he be sacked.”
The team sticks together even when there are setbacks. Also sporty. If there were a few weaker games – like last time – that doesn’t upset the Hammers either: “We’re a great bunch of guys and we take every game as it comes,” says Rice. It will be interesting to see where this group goes.
Getting into the Champions League would be a dream come true for the loyal supporters. But if not, the world won’t collapse because the current state is already a great success. “These players were on the brink of relegation. Now we’re pushing towards Europe,” says Moyes, who takes great satisfaction in calming down a former chaos club of all things and being successful in his own way.
If he moves into the premier class, where he was in the quarter-finals with Manchester United in 2013/14 and failed there at Bayern Munich, he will Moyesiah finally canonized. And maybe Russell Penn will come by with a few beers.
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