Rising tides are supposed to lift all boats, but the opposite effect seems to have taken hold at West Ham.
Wednesday night’s dismal display at Liverpool was the latest evidence of the growing gap between David Moyes’s first-choice side and the rest of his squad, with a team showing six changes from the weekend win over Wolves hammered out of sight on Merseyside.
It gives the Scot little choice but to revert back to his tried and tested XI when Manchester United visit the London Stadium on Saturday, just as he would ideally be looking to freshen things up again for what is a sixth game in 17 days.
“I’d have loved to have said I put out every single player to do their best up there but then I might have been really struggling to field a team against Manchester United,” Moyes said on Thursday. “That’s the balance I have to come up with. I’ve got to say, it’s difficult decisions. It was incredibly difficult decisions before we went to Liverpool.”
Since bedding in the likes of Edson Alvarez and Mohammed Kudus following their summer moves from Ajax, Moyes has relied heavily on a core group of players during the first half of the season, seldom rotating in the Premier League unless forced and using fewer players in that competition than any other club.
Eight outfield players have started at least 15 of the 17 League games so far, while Kudus and Alvarez have both been picked whenever available since their full league debuts, though the Mexican has missed two matches, one each through suspension and illness.
In many ways, it has been a major positive for the Scot, who last season had almost the reverse issue, with so many players in similarly mediocre form that he was forever tinkering with personnel set-up and shape.
“For a while we’ve been trying to give other boys a game and putting them in and seeing what they’re going to do. That’s what we’ve tried to do. So where would we do it?” Moyes asked.
“Will we do it against Manchester United? Or do it against Wolves? Probably not because I’ve said openly here that our bread and butter is the Premier League.
“We’ve got European football and somewhere along the line I’ve got to give some of the players an opportunity. Over the last few years, we’ve used Europe to give players games. But this year, the European games have been much tougher.”
For all Moyes was pilloried for his selection at Anfield, it is equally true that a manager with - numerically at least - a squad this deep should be able to make changes without fear of such drastic fall-off.
The likes of Angelo Ogbonna and Aaron Cresswell do not look the forces of old due to age, but that is no excuse for players like Said Benrahma, Pablo Fornals and Ben Johnson, who appear to have gone backwards. Thilo Kehrer, Danny Ings and Maxwel Cornet each came to the club as experienced professionals of genuine international pedigree, but none have made a consistent impact.
Only in goal does Moyes have realistic competition for places, with Lukasz Fabianski and Alphonse Areola scrapping for one shirt. Ironically, that puzzle is providing a headache, too.
