West Ham manager, David Moyes, has bemoaned the scheduling of Premier League games after his side were defeated by Leeds 3-2.
The match in East London was West Ham’s third match in eight days following two 2-0 victories over Leeds in the FA Cup and Norwich in the rescheduled Premier League game.
The Hammers were simply not good enough making a number of defensive errors and missing big chances but Moyes said the fixture schedule “was a huge factor” in the bad performance.
West Ham boss David Moyes is frustrated at the Premier League’s decision to give the Irons three matches in eight days after a 3-2 home loss to Leeds.
Like all teams, West Ham have had a congested fixture list over the Christmas period but unlike some other sides, the Hammers only had one postponement. That match was Norwich at home on 18th December, West Ham weren’t happy the game was called off in the first place as Dean Smith’s men used the ‘loophole’ of injuries as well as Covid-19 cases to get their way.
Moyes said, “We didn’t agree with it from the start why we had to play Norwich (in midweek). We’ve missed one game and not by our doing and it was made to go in at this time in the season.”
Leeds had midweek to prepare for their second visit to London Stadium in a week but West Ham didn’t, Moyes feels that was unfair given Marcelo Bielsa’s side also needed to catch up on matches.
“We’ve just come out of a busy period, but Leeds had two games to play and they weren’t asked to play in midweek and we were” the Scot complained.
Moyes continued, “I cannot understand it. It tells me that the people that are doing that can’t understand what recovery means, what it means to play games on a regular basis and the people who are putting the games in place are getting that wrong.”
This is another reason why West Ham need January signings, to improve squad depth with a striker or central defender – the Hammers are scouting Ligue 1.
West Ham did complain about the scheduling of the Norwich fixture prior to the match but were refused another move of the match. The Premier League has already postponed 21 games so far this season.
“It was really tough for us to get back out, we didn’t feel the Norwich game should have been put in, we let them know that but they refused our request on even a thought, they wanted it played but it’s had an effect on today’s game.”
Much like Bielsa, who arrived to play West Ham with just one senior outfield player on the bench, Moyes said he had no interest in using the loophole in the rules to call off a match.
Moyes said, “Against Norwich we had Covid and injuries, we’ve got a player away at the AFCON as well but I wanted to keep going if we could do, I didn’t see any reason not to.”