David Moyes’ side sit 18th in the table going into the international break
(Picture: REUTERS)David Moyes put the blame on his regular first-team stars as West Ham were beaten 1-0 by Everton at Goodison Park.
A second-half strike from Neal Maupay was enough to give the Toffees their first Premier League win of the season, lifting them up to 13th in the table while West Ham will spend the international break in the relegation zone.
The Hammers have just four points from their opening seven league matches, scoring three goals in the process, and once again struggled to get going in attack against Everton.
Moyes has called for patience in recent weeks, insisting it will take time for the team to bed in the new signings after a busy summer of transfer business.
Only two of those summer arrivals started at Goodison Park though, in Thilo Kehrer and Lucas Paqueta, and the West Ham has admitted he is more concerned about the standards being set by those who have shone for the club in recent seasons.
“We had a game on Thursday night and we are still trying to put new players in and find out a lot about them - we found out little bits,” Moyes said.
“But it was mainly about the players I know about in the main who let me down at different times with poor play overall.
“The players who played last year are down on their level as well as us introducing new players. We have shown signs we were getting back to it but I don’t think we did today.
“We couldn’t put two or three passes together and when we got anything in the final third it was nearly always the wrong decision. The last 20 minutes, we had some chances to get an equaliser.”
He added: “We have to keep going and keep putting the work in, the players have responded well in the last two or three years and there is no reason they cannot reach those heights again.
“If you’re not scoring lots of goals you have to make sure you are a really good defensive team. We have got a good enough team but we need to start showing it, that’s for sure.”
