After the defeat vs Brighton & Hove Albion, West Ham United manager David Moyes has provided an explanation for why he substituted Said Benrahma at half-time.
Despite the score being 1-0 to the home side, Moyes chose to withdraw the forward from the ptich at the Amex Stadium on Saturday afternoon. This decision received criticism from Hammers supporters, as Pablo Fornals came on to replace Benrahma for the remaining 45 minutes of the match.
Unfortunately, the change failed to have the desired impact, as the Seagulls continued to dominate and scored additional goals from Joel Veltman, Kaoru Mitoma, and Danny Welbeck after Alexis Mac Allister’s opener.
Though Benrahma scored a goal during West Ham’s 3-1 FA Cup defeat at Manchester United last Wednesday night, he was unable to replicate his performance on the south coast. When asked about the substitution at half-time, Moyes explained the reasoning behind his decision to remove Benrahma from the field by “creative stuff”.
Moyes said, as quoted by football.london:
“I thought they were causing us problems down the right with Solly March and Veltman and I didn’t think we were getting any creative stuff,” the boss said. “But I could have said that about a lot of them. I’ve got to make the decision of what I think at the time.
“Pablo Fornals has played quite well for us, does a good job for us. I thought he might have helped out a bit more in a defensive situation and Pablo’s someone who can come up with a goal. We turned the ball over more in the first half than I think we’ve done all season. [But] our passing and control was really poor.”