West Ham’s 4-0 defeat against Brighton on Saturday afternoon has perhaps emphasised to fans that the club cannot be considered too good to go down this season.
The Hammers were completely outplayed on the south coast and have now mustered just 23 points from 25 games so far this term, with David Moyes under serious pressure at the London Stadium after another embarrassing away defeat.
Last season’s successes are still fresh in the board’s thinking but it seems clear that the east London outfit cannot be expected to progress any further under the Scottish manager after another lacklustre display at the weekend.
Should West Ham ditch Ben Johnson?
If the former Manchester United boss is to turn things around at West Ham, he must consider ditching Ben Johnson, who was well and truly given the run around by Kaoru Mitoma against Brighton, in what was another shocking display by the youngster.
As per Sofascore, the 23-year-old defender would earn a woeful 6.2/10 rating for his performance on the south coast, and he had a role to play in each of Brighton’s first three goals.
First, he would misjudge a pass to Mitoma on the left wing, which allowed the Japanese winger to progress into the penalty area, where he was fouled by the covering Jarrod Bowen.
Joel Veltman was then afforded the freedom of the six-yard box to score the second from a corner, with Johnson marking fresh air at the back post, before he lost Mitoma again for the third goal.
Unfortunately, the once-promising youngster has shown with his displays this term that he cannot be considered a long-term prospect for the Hammers, averaging a shocking 6.47 rating from WhoScored which ranks him as the 12th-best performer at the London Stadium.
With Vladimir Coufal sidelined through injury and Thilo Kehrer out with illness, Moyes was left with little choice but to deploy Johnson at right-back on Saturday, which perhaps emphasises the greater issue of a lack of quality in depth at the club.
Following the game, Moyes said: “Thilo Kehrer went down sick during the night last night so I didn’t have anything I could do to alter that at any time in the game, as far as a right-back went.
“It was a tough day for Ben but he’s a young boy, and that’s the way it is, you have to learn on the job sometimes and hopefully, he learns a lot from today.”
Despite what Moyes says, Johnson now has 81 senior appearances under his belt at West Ham, so he cannot still be considered an inexperienced prospect for the Hammers.
Given his lack of progression and struggles so far this season, Moyes must ditch the academy graduate for upcoming fixtures, or risk seeing his side fall back into the relegation zone.
