Marko Arnautovic faces a fight to prove he has a future at West Ham after David Moyes warned the club’s record signing that he will not pick him until he becomes a team player.
The Austrian has been a big disappointment since his £24m move from Stoke City in the summer, failing to create or score a single goal in the Premier League, and he could fall victim to Moyes’s desire to shake up a lopsided squad unless he applies himself better before the transfer window opens in January. West Ham’s new manager, who has been tasked with pulling his team out of the bottom three after replacing Slaven Bilic on an initial six-month deal, has made it clear to the left-sided forward that he did not work hard enough under the previous management.
“I’ve told him this morning, the first time I’ve really had some time with him, and I said: ‘You’ll play in the team if you make goals and score goals, but if you don’t run for the team then you don’t play either,’” Moyes said. “I can accept one or the other, if you are making goals and scoring goals and the team is winning then I might not need so much of the other.
“I watched him at Stoke a lot and I thought he did the work for the team. I’ve never worked with him before so I am roughly getting to know him. What I can do is give him confidence and say: ‘When you are ready to play, we hope to see what you can do’.
“I can only go on what people have told me and they didn’t think he has come up to the standard he set at Stoke City. At Stoke I thought he looked like the sort of player you would never be keen to play against if you’re a right full-back because of his power and strength and what he can do.
“But he also has to be a team player. The clips I have seen, at times he has not looked a team player. He would not be the only one I would say that about. The other players also have to do the work for the team if they want to be part of it.”
Arnautovic could find himself on the bench when West Ham visit Watford for Moyes’s first game on Sunday afternoon. “The hardest thing at the moment is that I have got four to five people who want to play wide left,” Moyes said. “I have tried to go around them and say to them: ‘OK, I will try and get you where you feel best suited.’ But I have got four to five of them to get into the team.”
Moyes’s comments on Arnautovic chimed with what he told the squad in a meeting this week. The 54-year-old has seen the statistics showing that West Ham have made the fewest sprints and covered the second lowest distance in the Premier League and he will not tolerate any indiscipline. While the players explained what went wrong under Bilic, Moyes wants them to take responsibility.
“I’ve just not got any time for any nonsense,” Moyes said. “I’m not going to be pampering to any needs. I can’t be bothered. If anybody says they can’t get back from international duty, well, don’t think you will be coming in and playing Saturday. It’s that sort of thing. It can’t happen any longer.
“I need results quickly. If not it will be you boys or somebody else saying it will be something to do with David Moyes. The only way I am going to get results is if those players give me the chance to get them. I am certainly not pussyfooting around with them.”