West Ham

You can add Scamacca to that crime sheet - £30m+ for 6'5" of pure dung.

Het-field wrote: But, Moyes continues to revert back to the likes of Bowen, Antonio, Cresswell, Ogbonna, and Soucek who are either running on empty or ageing out. He's had a lot of success with these players (some of the are exceptionally over-worked), but its now run its course, and people have figured out the game-plan.

Dawson's another who can still be ok on his day, at least when playing on the front foot against an old-style No.9 etc. And you overlook Rice, who has been truly excellent in each of the the three games I've seen him live this season - not easy in an otherwise crap team. By contrast, Antonio is a big, fat shadow* of the player he looked 2 or 3 years back

But yes, you're right, Moyes is over-reliant on this core group, made worse by having to squeeze in 8 Europa Conference games into the season already. I guess it shows what he thinks of the rest of his squad.

* -  Can a shadow be said to be "fat"?

Rice goes without saying really. Leaving his folly with the national team aside, he is a top professional who in the past five years has played almost 300 games for club and countries. He is rarely if ever injured, and as a CDM his capacity to control a game can be mesmeric. In a team of better players, the sky is the limit for what he can achieve.

You still see sparks of what Antonio was. His set-up for Bowen's second against Everton was a prime example. But he is now moving towards 34 and given his build, and injury record, a decline was always likely to happen. I will say that he looked finished in 2017/2018 and has had a positive resurrection. The difficulty is that he will slow with age, and that blunts his strongest characteristics.

In truth, it is the likes of Soucek, and Fornals that have been the biggest issue, as they remain of an age where they should still be outstanding players. Soucek in particular looks to have been sussed by other teams, and as a result he is nowhere near as effective as he was when he joined. Coufal is gradually joining the list of right-backs at WHU that have started well, only to tail off.

Moyes has also struggled to bring new players into the side, and evolve the team. Part of me would have preferred had he been able to pull off the signings of Tarkowski, Lingard rather than the plethora of international signings. Moyes has never been great when massive change of players is needed. He performs well with the likes of Craig Dawson, as opposed to great names, on paper.  

Type of result that might knock Forest back a bit. It was a total collapse.

How right I was.

That third goal was embarrassing.

In many ways, to beat Fiorentina would be good, as it would be beating a bigger name on the way to the title. But WH have stuck to their task throughout. So unlucky last year, but here is a chance to win a trophy,, and secure European football for a third season in a row. I think this also settles Moyes' position for next season.

Man City must be keeping you awake at night.

Yawn. 

No-one cares about City you know