West Ham analysis: Motivation for David Moyes missing as fans chant for sacking of board

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Jack Rosser @JackRosser_19 November 2017

David Moyes endured a nightmare start to his time at West Ham as his side suffered a wholly deserved defeat at Watford.

After a quiet start at Vicarage Road, broken up with a few robust challenges from Andy Carroll, Richarlison broke and whipped the ball in to create the first real chance of the afternoon and, after a miss-hit from Andre Gray, Will Hughes turned well and fired past Joe Hart.

The host dominated the ball until the break, with the Hammers offering precious little in possession, leaving Moyes with questions to answer during the interval.

The Hammers looked to have gone someway to changing things early in the second half with spells of intent on the ball. But Watford soon turned up the heat once again and, on the counter, doubled their lead through Richarlison

Jack Rosser was at Vicarage Road to assess the key talking points...

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Moyes motivation

When he was appointed, Moyes’ mission statement for the season was built on hard work and building a side that would be hard to beat.

At Watford, we saw neither of those elements to West Ham’s game.

The visitors were lethargic on and off the ball, especially in the first half, with captain Mark Noble - usually the man to rally those around him - slowing play and failing to offer anything to those in front of him.

Off the ball there was no sign of a step up in terms of their work rate, and certainly not in their organisation at the back, with Marco Silva’s side handed chance after chance off the back of naive play.

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Problems pile up

Moyes already has enough to sort out on the pitch without his injury list lengthening.

The Scot was without James Collins, Michail Antonio, Jose Fonte, Sam Byram and Andre Ayew at Watford and, having shown signs of improvement after the break, club-record signing Marko Arnautovic was forced off with what looked to be a broken wrist.

The Austrian is yet to score for the Hammers in the league and could be set for a spell on the sidelines with a tough run of fixtures to come.

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Clueless Carroll

Carroll was recalled to the starting eleven in the absence of Javier Hernandez and was lucky to stay on until the second half, when he was replaced by Diafra Sakho.

Having thrown an elbow in within the first minute, the striker’s only real contribution was giving away cheap fouls, picking up a yellow card shortly afterwards and then narrowly avoid being sent off before half-time after a tangle on the edge of the Watford box.

The No.9, a handful for any defender in the Premier League on his day, looked disinterested and off the pace for every minute.

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"Sack the board"

There was little to be heard from the usually boisterous West Ham fans at Vicarage Road, other than when they decided to take on the board.

After persistent chants of "sack the board" through the first half, the fans then took it upon themselves to take on each of the board members before accusing them of ruining the club.