David Moyes has launched a staunch defence of his team selection against Liverpool, calling criticism “cheap”, despite a weakened West Ham crashing out of the Carabao Cup.
The Hammers were thrashed 5-1 by a rampant Liverpool as hopes of only a second Anfield win in 60 years and a place in the competition’s semi-finals were dashed.
Moyes has been reluctant to rotate in recent weeks, despite his side having played five times in 14 days, with a lunchtime kick-off against Manchester United to come on Saturday.
Here, however, he made six changes to his starting XI from the weekend’s win at Wolves, much to the dismay of the 6,000 fans who made the trip. Moyes insisted the schedule left him little choice.
“It’s a pretty cheap question to ask when the only teams who have played more games than us over three years are Liverpool and Manchester City,” the Scot said. “We’ve had the quickest turnaround of any team in the Premier League, only two days, and we’ve played more games.
“We have Saturday lunchtime, we’ve played tonight, the latest one. But we understand, we take it, I’m not using it as an excuse. It’s fact.
“If you’re going to talk about rotation, you’d better talk about the amount of games we’ve played and the amount of quick turnarounds we’ve had.”
Lucas Paqueta, James Ward-Prowse and Kurt Zouma were among those left on the bench as Liverpool dominated the first half, albeit with only Dominik Szoboszlai’s strike to show for it.
After the break, Curtis Jones and Cody Gakpo put the game to bed, with Mohamed Salah and then Jones completing the rout in reply to Jarrod Bowen’s consolation.
“We were well beaten,” Moyes said.
No team has used fewer players in the League this season than West Ham’s 22, and of those the same core of starters have been heavily relied upon.
Moyes’s alterations on Wednesday, however, handed surprise starts to players who have hardly been involved in recent months, including Angelo Ogbonna, Ben Johnson and Said Benrahma.
“I had to find out which players were good for me going into the Christmas period,” Moyes said. “And I’m losing players for the Africa Cup of Nations.
“We gave some players opportunities, but I don’t think [the defeat] was to do with that. It was to do with how good Liverpool were.
"We wanted to have a go at the Carabao Cup, but it does get worrying with the schedule we have. I’m worried now for the weekend, because a couple of the players played longer than they should have done.”
