When West Ham lost 4-1 to Aston Villa, David Moyes lamented his team’s lack of offensive threat and admitted he was becoming more tempted to start Mohammed Kudus in the Premier League.
The Hammers suffered their first significant loss of the year as Villa won their 11th straight home league game thanks to goals from Ollie Watkins, Leon Bailey, and two of Douglas Luiz.
Beyond Jarrod Bowen’s deflected goal halved the Villa deficit to 2-1, West Ham briefly threatened a comeback, but beyond that brief spurt, they struggled to worry Emiliano Martinez.
Moyes stated, “We weren’t defensively resilient when we needed to be, but more crucially, every ball we played in and around the box was the wrong decision. We had a hard time identifying anyone, which prevented us from producing many scoring opportunities.
“I think Aston Villa are a really, really excellent team. They have a great style and a solid lineup. However, we might have penalized them today just like we do with Chelsea or Brighton, two teams of a comparable caliber. However, because we failed to take advantage of our chances to seize the possibilities, we were unable to receive the obvious opportunities today. For me, that was the frustrating part.
In keeping with the League’s established starting lineup this season, Moyes once again benched summer acquisition Kudus.
The Ghanaian has made an impression in cup competitions and during a number of cameos, scoring an equalizer off the bench in the 2-2 draw with Newcastle just before the international break, but he is yet to make a League debut.
“I’m tempted to start Kudus every game,” Moyes admitted. However, I must admit that the team has performed fairly well. Of course, we also need to strike the correct balance in this situation.
“Sometimes our balance has been very good and got us some good results. Now and again sometimes it can cause you problems as well.”
