David Moyes has got his work cut out for him in the final few months of the season. We know that winning away at Manchester City simply wasn’t going to happen, but the way that Moyes set his side up took away any slither of hope that the Hammers had of grabbing an unlikely result.
The fact that Sebastien Haller, Manuel Lanzini and Felipe Anderson were all unused substitutes whilst Jarrod Bowen only managed ten minutes in this game was one thing, but what isn’t getting enough media attention is the fact that Pablo Fornals couldn’t even make the 18-man squad, despite being one of the club’s best players.
The midfield man is a top talent, yet under David Moyes, he just hasn’t had the chances that he deserves. At the age of just 23-years-old, the ex-Villarreal man is creatively excellent, yet in West Ham’s last three games in the Premier League, he’s featured for a total of 26 minutes (Transfermarkt).
In Fornals’ final game before Moyes got the job at the club, he won the man of the match award (WhoScored), despite the fact that his side lost at home to Leicester, and his numbers this season are certainly impressive and not the sort of figures that a dropped midfielder usually puts up.
Fornals is averaging 1 shot, 0.5 key passes and 1.3 tackles per game (WhoScored), and he needs to be used in areas where he can impact the game. Instead, though, it seems that Moyes is opting against creativity in favour of trying to be more solid, something that isn’t working whatsoever.
Is Pablo Fornals part of West Ham's strongest XI?
Yes
No
Against Liverpool on Monday, if the Irons want to even have a chance of getting something from the clash, they’ll have to go into the game with more freedom and that means that Fornals has to be at least a part of the matchday squad, as leaving out a player of his quality is criminal.
