West Ham coach David Moyes explained the abundance of major defeats this season with the departure of midfielder Declan Rice.
West Ham went down 5-0 to Chelsea on Sunday, and this defeat was the fourth for the Hammers with a difference of five or more goals this Premier League season.
Only Sheffield United (7), which has already been relegated from the Premier League, suffered more such major defeats. According to Moyes, this is due to the fact that last summer West Ham sold Rice to Arsenal for 105 million pounds without getting an adequate replacement.
“When you have the best defensive midfielder in the country, who insures and stops probably 50 percent of the opponent’s attacks, your team looks much better defensively.”
“We lacked insurance in front of the four defenders, we lacked good defensive actions, we were not good enough at these things in many matches,” Moyes was quoted as saying by the Evening Standard.