West Ham boss David Moyes has two games to stop club spiraling out of control

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Tony Evans20 November 2017

Friday night can’t come fast enough for most of the working population. It will arrive too quickly in the East End this week. Those associated with West Ham are apprehensive about what might happen in four days’ time.

David Moyes’s home debut as manager will be played in front of a fractious Friday night crowd at the London Stadium. West Ham cannot afford a poor result against Leicester.

The next month is a critical period for Moyes. After Leicester, the Hammers travel to Goodison to face Everton, the club where the Scot built his reputation. It is an awkward place to go even though the Merseyside club are also struggling. After that, the going gets really tough.

In the first 13 days of December, West Ham are away to Manchester City and host Chelsea and Arsenal. That run makes it crucial they pick up points against Leicester and Everton.

Incoming managers usually benefit from a number of factors. Change often brings optimism. The new man frequently provides a ‘bounce,’ an upturn in form. There was little evidence of these effects during the 2-0 defeat by Watford at Vicarage Road on Sunday. That is not necessarily the fault of the new manager.

When a club has been in reverse for as long as West Ham it takes a while to arrest the slide. It took Sam Allardyce more than a month to steady the situation at Crystal Palace last season. The master firefighter looked bereft of ideas for weeks after taking charge at Selhurst Park. The situation is similar: like West Ham, Palace persisted too long with a manager who was no longer effective and the players lost faith in the direction of the club. Reigniting enthusiasm and instilling belief are not overnight tasks.

Moyes does not have a lot of time. The mood among the supporters is on the poisonous side of toxic. There is barely any goodwill towards the 54‑year-old and the crowd rounded on the players and owners on Sunday.

The signs on the pitch were not encouraging at Vicarage Road. Moyes was a fiery presence during his peak years at Goodison and his team had more of an aggressive edge against Watford. It was unfocused, though.

David Moyes press conference after Watford 2-0 West Ham

Andy Carroll, Marko Arnautovic and Cheikhou Kouyate were overly and foolishly belligerent. There was an angry inertia about the team. Physicality will not get West Ham out of this mess. They need intelligence and craft.

There are goals in the side. Javier Hernandez, Andre Ayew, Diafra Sakho and Carroll all have limitations but they provide more firepower than any of the other bottom‑dwellers can muster. That should be enough to guarantee safety but the supply line to the strikers has been poor. Manuel Lanzini has been nowhere near his best for a while.

On Sunday the Argentinian sat too deep to influence proceedings. He is the key to any renaissance.

Perhaps Lanzini was one of those that Moyes had in mind when the manager talked about players not living up to their reputations. The Scot is right but he needs to be careful when pointing out the squad’s deficiencies.

Moyes’s spell in charge of Sunderland was doomed almost from the start because many at the Stadium of Light felt their manager was unduly negative. Some West Ham players were pulling in a different direction to Slaven Bilic for so long it became a habit.

Unifying the club will be a delicate, difficult task. This squad stopped responding to being shouted at a long time ago.

There will be money available in January but how much influence a short-term appointment will have on the shopping list is questionable, especially if the next month goes badly. The margin for error will get smaller as the threat of relegation grows.

Needs to raise game: Manuel Lanzini
West Ham United via Getty Images

Moyes will need every minute of this week to get his defence and midfield organised. He is not responsible for the mess he inherited but if Friday turns into fright night in the London Stadium, things could spiral out of control very quickly.

It could be a very cold winter in the East End if West Ham fail to show signs of turning things around against Leicester.

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