David Moyes has admitted that West Ham’s poor start to the season is a cause for concern after they fell to the foot of the Premier League.
Goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Leandro Trossard condemned West Ham to a 2-0 loss at home to Brighton.
Mac Allister’s first-half penalty and Trossard’s breakaway goal kept Brighton’s unbeaten start to the season and they recorded three defeats from three games for the Hammers.
“We will have to be tougher than we have been to get back on track.” — West Ham United (@WestHam) August 21, 2022
It’s their worst start to a season in 51 years and they’re also the only team in all four divisions yet to score a goal.
“I’m worried but I also have to put people to bed,” said Moyes, who started with £30m striker Gianluca Scamacca on the bench again.
“We still don’t have everything in place. Hopefully our quality will show in the coming weeks.
“The alarm bells are too loud. We finished seventh, then sixth, and we got positive things out of that. We have lost a little. We have to move away from that position.
“Last year we were one of the top scorers. But we are struggling a bit for goals. We are aware that we are not as fluid as before.”
There are also problems at the back with Kurt Zouma and new signing Thilo Kehrer guilty of both goals.
When Zouma gave the ball away off the field, Trossard played on Danny Welbeck, who was turned over by Kehrer to concede the penalty.
“I fell asleep because I don’t think Thilo was ready to start the game,” Moyes added.
“He made the wrong decision to go to the ground for the penalty kick. We give away the ball terribly. They responded. If he had been standing, he probably would have seen it.
“I probably wouldn’t have started with Thilo if we had been in a better place or had other central halves available.”
Scamacca came on after an hour, but five minutes later Brighton doubled their lead.
Mac Allister’s forward pass found Pascal Gross, who held off Zouma as he lobbed the ball into Trossard’s path for a flawless finish past Lukasz Fabianski.
West Ham have now played the Seagulls 11 times in the Premier League and have not beaten them once.
“I’ve only been here three years so you can’t blame me for all that,” smiled Brighton boss Graham Potter.
“I thought we played well, not perfectly, but it wasn’t easy out there.
“We scored a goal at a good time and had enough control of the game to say we deserved to win.
“There is no secret, it is just a hard-working team. When we play well we can compete”.
Striker Neal Maupay looked set to sign for Nottingham Forest last week but was among the substitutes in east London.
“It seemed imminent last week, it’s less imminent now,” Potter said. “That’s why I was on the team. We are happy to have him on the squad.”
