West Ham United’s new manager David Moyes has admitted that he wants the Hammers to mimic some of the attributes of his old Everton team – especially its work rate and attitude.
The 54-year-old Scot has taken over at the London club after Slaven Bilic’s dismissal and has been handed the task of rebuilding the team after a disappointing start to the 2017-18 Premier League campaign.
Moyes perhaps was not the most inspiring choice among the West Ham fans, especially as he has struggled to make an impact in his last three jobs at Manchester United, Real Sociedad and Sunderland.
However, the Scotsman has coined his time at Everton as something he would like to aspire to with the Hammers.
Moyes was manager at Goodison Park for 11 years, where he worked with a tight budget to lead the Merseyside club to perennial over-achievement.
Ahead of his first match in the West Ham hotseat on Sunday against Watford, the new Hammers manager has asked his players to show the same dedication to the cause as the squad he had available at Everton.
“In a way West Ham are very much like one of the clubs I managed — Everton,” Moyes wrote in a column for the London Evening Standard.
“Both have passionate, honest supporters, the ones who work hard all week, have a couple of pints and go to the football. I think, with West Ham and Everton fans, if they saw energy and the players doing their best, they would within reason, accept that.
“We didn’t win all the games at Everton but we slowly built up a level of performance and confidence which the supporters felt was good enough and by the end they could see the work-rate, energy and the players taking responsibility.
“In fact, towards the end of my time there, I used to tell the players: “You can near enough run the team yourselves,” because they knew their jobs, they knew what was expected of them on the pitch.
“It’s going to take time to get to that level here at West Ham but I want the players here to be able to say: “Yes, we know what we have to do.”
Despite being a passionate manager, Bilic struggled to consistently get the level of commitment and performance out of the West Ham squad that the the Irons supporters demand.
Although Moyes’ recent record at previous clubs does not inspire huge amounts of confidence in his ability, there are signs that he will demand sky-high standards from his new group of players.
Training looks to have been more intense under the new West Ham manager and the fresh start will mean that members of the squad will have to prove their commitment to the club’s cause if they are to play.
While Moyes’ Everton were not a side that played blistering attacking football, not many teams got an easy away day at Goodison under his stewardship.
The same certainly cannot be said of West Ham at the London Stadium, with it time for the Hammers players to show more heart and commitment to improving the state of affairs at the club.