With five games left of the 2020/21 Premier League season, West Ham have slipped out of the Champions League places and are in danger of being pipped for a Europa League spot.
Per the Daily Mail, the Hammers haven’t kept a clean sheet in the last six games and during that time they’ve lost to Chelsea and Newcastle, as well as conceding 12 goals in the process.
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After such a brilliant season for the east Londoners, it will be a great shame for all concerned if they run out of steam at the business end.
David Moyes has done an incredible job, and probably deserves to lead his team into European competition, however, he has identified one key issue that needs to be resolved if his side want to end the season well.
That being the need to get Declan Rice back into the fold as soon as possible.
“Mostly it is not having Declan Rice,” he said in response to a question about West Ham’s recent defensive frailties, per the Daily Mail.
“Is he that important? I think so, yeah. He is incredibly important. We’ve had him back training a little bit.
“He’s made good progress, we’re happy and he’s ahead of schedule. We’ll try to keep pushing him.”
It’s not clear whether their next fixture against Burnley will come too quickly for him, and Moyes would be ill-advised to rush him back.
However, there’s no denying that another reverse could see them drop as low as eighth when just a few short weeks ago, they were looking likely to be able to contest third spot.