David Moyes has set his in-form West Ham squad a fresh challenge for the rest of the season: win the FA Cup.
And landing a second striker to back up Michail Antonio would certainly boost the Hammers’ chances of winning world football’s oldest cup competition for the first time since 1980.
West Ham’s best result in the preceding 40 years was a final defeat to Liverpool in 2006. They are enjoying their best season in the Premier League for years and face Doncaster in the fourth round of the cup this weekend.
And Moyes – whose greatest FA Cup achievement was to take Everton to the final 12 years ago –believes the squad can handle the fixture congestion that comes with a cup run.
“I want to win the FA Cup if I can, I really do. I want to be strong in the cup competitions, but I also have to be mindful of the amount of games we’re playing and I think it’s beginning to take its toll on so many clubs,” Moyes said. “We’ve been good with injuries and I want to keep it that way.
“Obviously we’ve had a couple of injuries like everyone else but we’ve got a squad of players – we’ll use the squad of players but my intention is to be as strong as I feel I can be for this game.
“We had to win the first game to get to this round and now we have to beat Doncaster to get any further, so it’s easy to say the words, ‘I’d love to win the FA Cup’, but the journey you have to go on to get there is normally a long and difficult one.
“You have to be mindful of your players too – nearly the whole of January is similar to the Christmas and New Year period, so it’ll be impossible for all the clubs to play all the players all the time. We’re all mindful of those things, and hopefully we can get to the cup final, but the second job now is to beat Doncaster.”
This may be West Ham’s best chance of winning silverware in over a decade. Moyes is right to highlight the fitness levels of his players after a season where West Ham have avoided the serious injury gluts suffered by many Premier League teams.
And with them soaring to as high as seventh place this season, there’s no reason why the Hammers cannot shift some league focus onto the cup.
Hammers in enviable position
After all, the east London club are in no danger of relegation this term following a strong start to the campaign. And while Hammers fans would love them to challenge for the European spots, a better route to the Europa League could well be through a victory at Wembley come May.
The strains of the season appear to be taking their toll on clubs around West Ham. The six teams above them in the league are battling to secure the title, while Chelsea and Arsenal are labouring to make up ground.
There is now an evident group of bottom-half teams who would happily sacrifice the cup in order to focus on survival, meaning only a handful of sides – West Ham included – are in the enviable position of being able to take this season’s FA Cup seriously.
Assuming West Ham beat Doncaster, they would face either Liverpool or Manchester United in the fifth round – two teams who are fixated on the title race.
“It’s something that we want,” Moyes said when looking at the proposed fifth-round encounter.
“I want our players to be playing against the best teams in the league regularly and competing against them regularly, because if you’re doing that it tends to mean you’re involved in quarter-finals, semi-finals… big games. That’s what we want at West Ham. We want it to be a different mentality, so let’s hope we can do that.”
As Moyes prepares to host League One outfit Doncaster on Saturday, the club continues to work on signing a new striker – an arrival that would only ease the pressure on sole forward Antonio, whose goals this season have earned the Hammers 10 of their 32 points.
Antonio suffered a hamstring injury back in October and was unavailable for much of the subsequent two months – a period in which the London side won just two games.
West Ham transfer targets
Adding squad depth is what is now needed. The boss, who said last year’s January arrivals of Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen have “really helped” his side’s progression, is seeking a back-up striker for his 30-year-old goalscorer and has money to spend after Sebastien Haller’s £20.2m sale to Ajax.
While the funds generated are less than half of what West Ham paid for Haller back in 2019, they at least gives Moyes some muscle to flex in the transfer market.
West Ham have been linked to a string of Haller replacements, including most recently Reims frontman Boulaye Dia. French TV station Telefoot report that an £8.9m push to sign the 24-year-old has already been snubbed, while Fulham are supposedly also interested.
Senegal international Dia has scored 12 goals in Ligue 1 this season as Reims battle against relegation. The former electrician is tipped for big things and is the joint-top goalscorer alongside Kylian Mbappe in the French league.
Interest in Sevilla’s Youssef En-Nesyri has already fallen away following two rejected bids, while there are loose reports in Spain linking the Hammers to Real Sociedad forward Willian Jose.
The 29-year-old has, however, managed to score just six goals all season, which makes his arrival on a permanent basis appear unlikely unless West Ham snap him up for a bargain.
It has been suggested that Moyes could look to dip into the loan market to avoid a mad dash on deadline day, yet that decision would likely disappoint West Ham fans after promises were made that the club would spend the Haller funds.
At this stage West Ham don’t need a marquee signing, just one who can hold the fort should Antonio suffer another injury. That’s what Haller did but to middling effect. Otherwise, Moyes will be left with a greatly reduced offensive arsenal and a severely dampened FA Cup dream in the one season for a decade where the opportunity for silverware is real.
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