West Ham: The THREE key problems David Moyes must solve ahead of facing Nottingham Forest

There’s a big week of work ahead for West Ham, and David Moyes and his players were back at their Rush Green training base the morning after losing to Tottenham to get started.

Lose to Nottingham Forest at the London Stadium this Saturday and the Hammers board, so far reluctant to replace their manager, will have a decision to make on Moyes.

Every other team in the Premier League’s bottom six has changed their head coach – Southampton have even done it twice – but West Ham have held off. David Sullivan and Co felt stability was needed, not a new boss.

Yet Moyes knows Forest is a big game – ‘very big,’ he corrected us during his post-match press conference on Sunday night. He knows defeat could be disastrous for him. He knows there is pressure to perform and win.

Here, if Moyes is to save his job, Sportsmail looks at three key problems that the under-fire manager must solve.

West Ham need to take the handbrake off

Of the 11 players that lined up against Tottenham, only two were attackers – Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio. Otherwise it was a team of five defenders, and three defensive midfielders.

West Ham were favouring 4-2-3-1 earlier in the season until Moyes felt they needed to make themselves harder to beat and so changed to 3-5-1-1.

Yet against Tottenham, it was all too predictable, too defensive, too passive. It looked like football played with the handbrake on when if you want to win, you need to take it off.

Antonio was all on his own up top. Watching long balls be launched towards him over and over to no avail made you think of Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity.

Bowen tried to support Antonio, but primarily, West Ham’s plan was to stifle Tottenham.

Moyes may have been wary of Spurs’ ability to counter and so didn’t want his players pushing up with Tomas Soucek and Flynn Downes reluctant to stray too far from midfield.

But Declan Rice hinted at dressing room frustration towards these tactics after Sunday’s loss by Tottenham when he said: ‘When you play with five at the back and the three, like we set up today, maybe our strikers felt a bit isolated when we got the ball up to them – they didn’t really have enough around them, not enough support.’

Moyes started using Lucas Paqueta in midfield previously to try to stitch the midfield and forward lines together but with him injured, the lack of connection has been palpable.

Ings MUST start against Forest

Antonio can be one of the best at holding the ball up on his day. But as a singular striker, he does not do enough.

In his last seven Premier League appearances, he’s managed a single shot on target – a flick which was saved by Chelsea’s Kepa Arrizabalaga.

West Ham need more from their front man. They need him making runs in behind back lines. They need creativity. They need attempts and, most importantly, goals to win games.

That is why Danny Ings must start against Forest this Saturday.

Ings has made four substitute appearances since signing for West Ham in January – a knee injury having held him back – but he’s fit now and training with the first team.

That needs to be a focus of this week’s work – how to get Ings into positions where he can do what he’s done for so many Premier League clubs before West Ham.

Against Forest, West Ham are likely to control possession. They managed one of their highest percentages of the season in the reverse fixture – a 1-0 defeat in which Rice saw a penalty saved.

Whoever is in West Ham’s midfield need to be on the front-foot and thinking about playing passes in behind, because Ings will be making those runs.

Pablo Fornals and Said Benrahma will be itching to start, feeling they can provide that creativity.

So too will Manuel Lanzini, though he has not appeared in the Premier League since November and is frustrated at being frozen out. When West Ham wrote ‘Not our day’ in an Instagram post on Sunday night, Lanzini’s wife Jennifer Reina replied: ‘Put Lanzini on and it’s your day.’

Hammers suffering at set-pieces

Away from the lack of passion shown by the players in a London derby against Tottenham, one other area that is alarming is West Ham’s Premier League rankings from set pieces.

In the previous two seasons, they ranked third for headed goals. This season they rank 20th.

They ranked second for set-piece goals. Now they rank 18th.

They ranked first for goals from crosses. Now they rank 20th.

There were some interesting comments from Antonio earlier in the season on The Footballer’s Football Podcast in which he shed some light on Moyes’ mindset and game plan.

‘That’s one thing with our gaffer, literally, he loses his mind (over keeping it tight),’ Antonio said. ‘You’ve got to make sure you work from your shape and then you go for it. He says the only time you can actually really go for it? Last 10 minutes. Last 10 minutes of a match.’

Basically: sit back, stay tight, keep it close and then try to snatch a late winner. But currently, those winners are not coming from crosses, corners or free-kicks, and there is frustration with Moyes’ reluctance to change.

The best coaches can make mid-match tweaks to turn a game in their favour. Cristian Stellini is only covering for Antonio Conte, but in the second half, Tottenham’s wing backs were given greater licence to make inside runs and that was how the opening goal originated.

While West Ham’s players were preoccupied with Harry Kane and Richarlison, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg played a perfect pass in behind for Ben Davies to set up Emerson Royal.

From central wing back to central wing back, Tottenham had undone West Ham’s defensive work, leaving Moyes facing a testing week.