The Hammers have failed to be ruthless in the past few matches, and the conservative nature of the play is a slap in the face to West Ham fans.
West Ham’s draw against Brighton was not anything to be excited about. The Irons were second best majority of the match and were lucky to grab a point on the day. However, I feel that there is a deeper issue at the club right now, and I believe that David Moyes is feeding into this new mentality.
You started to get a sense of this issue during the Palace match. The Hammers came out flat against Palace and were lucky to be 1-0 down after halftime.
West Ham then ties the game up early in the second half, and after Benteke gets sent off in the 70th minute, you have to be thinking to yourself that West Ham are going to push on and try to grab all three points.
Instead, the Hammers and Moyes are seemingly fine with the draw, and happily take the point and move onto the next match. I would understand if we were playing a top team, but a 10 man Crystal Palace should not be scaring David Moyes.
Then, of course, we start to hear rumours about the fact that we may not be super active in the January window. That news, combined with the rumours that Declan Rice is going to be targeting again by Chelsea, and you start to get a little nervous as a West Ham fan.
For this fan, the icing on the cake came after the Brighton performance. Although the Hammers were second best for a majority of the match, after Soucek’s goal to make it 2-2, you really want to believe that the Irons are going to push on for the win.
Instead, David Moyes sends Saïd Benrahma back to the bench as he was about to come on, and we seemingly sit back and accept the draw.
This is unacceptable to a fanbase that deserves more. The Hammers were sitting in and around 6th place for a majority of the campaign thus far.
We were looking like we had a shot at Europe, or at the very least a potential top-half finish. All of the sudden, we are seemingly content with staying in the Premier League and are settling for draws against teams we should be beating.
The most concerning issue for me is the fact that David Moyes seems content as well. Moyes, who has done a good job with the squad thus far, is apparently on the verge of signing a new contract.
I simply cannot accept the fact that we feel as though this season has been a success thus far. Yes, we have had some great results, but the fact of the matter is that this is a very talented West Ham squad.
We don’t know how much longer we will have Declan Rice for, and in general, it seems as though there is a general passiveness and lack of aggressiveness in terms of the way we approach games, due to the fact that we may be “safe” from relegation already.
This is very troubling to see, and I really hope the Hammers are not content with where they are in the table at the moment. Although the Board and Manager may be satisfied, I’m sure many West Ham fans would love the team to be more ruthless and try to go for more wins instead of draws.