David Moyes: If West Ham goalkeeper Adrian plays well against Manchester City I will stick with him

In with a shout: Adrian returns to the side at home to Manchester City, having played well against the champions in December
West Ham United via Getty Images
David Moyes27 April 2018

With Joe Hart ineligible for Sunday’s game against the new champions, Adrian comes back in.

I’ve spoken with both goalkeepers over the last week. I thought that Joe’s performance against Arsenal was really solid, similar to that against Chelsea a couple of weeks previously. Yes, he made a mistake against Stoke, but what you do is bounce back and that is exactly what he did at the Emirates, where he made several really good saves.

Now, though, Adrian has his chance — and if he plays well against Manchester City, then I will stick with him. It always has to be a case of getting into the team, grabbing that jersey and showing what you can do. We only have three games to go after Sunday and, should he play well, he’ll stay in.

I thought we had done a good job last weekend against Arsenal. We had defended well after conceding a really poor first goal which meant we had to chase the game. We scored a very good equaliser and, if anything, we looked as though we might have gone on to get the winner. That changed in the last eight minutes, but before that I thought the boys performed really well.

Young Declan Rice has done great for us, but I don’t think we can hide the fact that he should have just headed the ball away for their second goal. That’s football.

If it was any player, I would have said the same thing. It doesn’t matter whether you’re 19 or 29, the message has to be the same. Of course, we understand he’s a young, developing player, but you cannot hide the facts and that was a poor decision he made.

Declan knows what he did and he’s had one or two incidents this season. To be fair, though, his form in general has been very good, he’s steadied down so we hope it is a blip and that he won’t make a similar mistake again.

The truth is there are very few 19-year-old central defenders in the Premier League — if any.

One of the reasons is should a young defender make a mistake and it costs the team, it costs the manager as well, so the players who have more experience tend to be picked. If you put a young striker in, it may cost you in terms of a chance missed, but it doesn’t in terms of potential goals conceded — and, ultimately, points lost.

In Pictures | Arsenal vs West Ham | 22/04/2018

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It is easy to forget Declan made his Premier League debut in the final game of last season. He’s progressed a lot in a short amount of time. At times, we may need him to be a defensive midfielder, but because of injuries we have needed him at the back and he’s played really well in many of the games.

Declan’s due a renewal of his contract, but like everything else, it’s on hold until we are mathematically safe from relegation. For the sake of a couple of weeks, it’s not going to make much difference.

Sunday’s game is obviously important for us. We’re not safe yet, but even if we were, my focus would be on how far up the table we can go in these last four matches.

We always knew this would be a difficult period for us and we have to find a way of winning another couple of games.

There’s always a discussion to be had about possibly freshening up the team, but since Michail Antonio was injured early on in the game against Southampton, we’ve played the same side.

I don’t believe we need any drastic changes and the boys who have been playing recently have been okay. I don’t think anyone is letting us down in terms of performances.

It’s top marks for Marko

Hammer of the Year: Marko Arnautovic
REUTERS

I would like to congratulate all the winners at Wednesday’s Player Awards including Marko Arnautovic, who is the Hammer of the Year. Marko has been an important member of the team and his goals have been valuable for us throughout the season. I hope he continues to improve his game, keeps his work rate high and goes on to score many more for the club. Declan Rice also deserves great credit having been named the Young Hammer of the Year. Declan has made very good progress in a short time. We are looking for him to continue his development and progress in the coming seasons.

The fee for this column is going to The Dylan Tombides DT38 Foundation. For details go to dt38.co.uk

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