17 February 2024 , 02:00
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David Moyes has hit back at critics of West Ham’s style by claiming: “We’ve been really good entertainment.”
The Hammers’ low possession, counterattacking approach has been slammed by unhappy supporters after last weekend’s 6-0 hammering against Arsenal. But Moyes, who has been without his three biggest attacking stars for most of a winless seven-game run, insists suggestions his side are dull are woefully misplaced.
“We’ve scored more goals than we’ve ever done before,” he said. “We’ve got three or four players playing with the biggest countries in the world at our club. I think we’re in a really good place.”
Instead the Scot says his frustration is with the team’s recent defending having shipped 12 goals in their past four matches.
While Mohammed Kudus was on international duty for much of January, top scorer Jarrod Bowen is recently returned from a lay-off and Lucas Paqueta remains sidelined by injury, Moyes has expected more from his back four.
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Only Sheffield United and Burnley have faced more shots on target so far this season and, ahead of today’s trip to Nottingham Forest, he is now calling on the Hammers’ rearguard “to stand up and be counted.”
He added: “I've been really disappointed with it. We've found it a struggle to score goals in the last month.
“Defensively we've not been as strong as I've been used to seeing from my teams. I'll always take responsibility but there is a bit or responsibility that goes where you need to stand up and be counted. During the opening part of the season we scored quite a lot of goals, scored in most games and we were looking likely.
Lucas Paqueta came off early in West Ham's draw against Bristol City in early January. with a left leg injury.“Slightly mitigating circumstances since January 1st with no Mo, Jarrod’s been coming back from an injury, no Paqueta for the majority of it, no Mic [Antonio]. There are reasons why our goals have dried up but it shouldn’t have affected us defensively. We should still have had the steel to make sure we were at least keeping clean sheets or fighting for narrow draws.”
Antonio will be included in today’s squad for the first time since injuring knee ligaments in November but Paqueta is not being considered despite his return to training. Moyes says West Ham are mindful not to rush the Brazilian playmaker back from his upper calf injury in case of reaggravation.
“We’d be worried if we had to take a risk on anything,” Moyes added. “Getting him back will be great but there’s no risk at the moment because he’s just not ready.”
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