By Warren Holmes
David Moyes’ will take charge of West Ham United at London Stadium for the first time on Friday for the visit of Leicester City, and will be expecting an instant reaction from his side after his 500th game in charge of a Premier League club was marked by a 2-0 defeat at Watford.Â
Moyes joins quality company in the exclusive 500 club with Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp the only other managers to reach that milestone.
It may come as no surprise to see Moyes bring in former England and West Ham left-back Stuart Pearce to his backroom staff, as he looks to tighten his teams defensive vulnerabilities, having conceded 25 goals in the Premier League this season.Â
The no-nonsense full-back spent two seasons with the Hammers and has plenty of experience in playing on the big stage, as well as coaching.Â
The former Manchester City and England U21 boss has been out of management since leaving Nottingham Forest over two years ago.Â
Moyes has also drafted in Alan Irvine and Billy McKinlay as part of his coaching staff, Irvine and Moyes reunite after working alongside each other at Preston and Everton, a key component to beating the drop will be the understanding these two have.Â
McKinlay has plenty of coaching experience and his worked with Moyes before at Spanish Club Real Sociedad, the former Scottish international and Irvine will already have a good understanding of Moyes which should help the Hammers hit the ground running.Â
The Hammers have scored 11 goals this season with summer recruit Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez getting four of those, the Hammers’ goals per match ratio is less than one a game at 0.92 and with Chicharito out through injury, Moyes will be looking for the Mexican’s teammates to start chipping in with some goals.
It looks as though Moyes will be without winger Marko Arnautovic, after the summer signing was taken off in the 2-0 loss at Vicarage Road at the weekend with an injury to his arm after a remarkable triple save by Heurelho Gomes denied him his first West Ham goal.Â
At a glimpse Moyes’ Hammers team have already shown glimpses of the hardworking ethic their manager was so keen to get across, covering more than 10 kilometres more ground than they had averaged in the season thus far (105km)
