West Ham United manager David Moyes has expressed his disappointment with Michail Antonio following the striker’s poor display in the Hammers’ 3-1 defeat to Tottenham on Sunday.

The Lowdown: Antonio’s performance

During the all-London clash, the Jamaica international was substituted early in the second half after failing to make an impact on the game. In his 56 minutes on the pitch, the 31-year-old had just 21 touches of the ball and lost possession nine times, completing a paltry four passes.

Even as the Irons’ lone striker, Antonio illustrated his lack of attacking threat by failing to produce a single shot on target, capping off a disappointing display for him and the Hammers.

The Latest: Moyes’ comments on Antonio

When questioned whether Antonio was just tired following his 36th appearance of the season, Moyes told football.london:

“No, I did not think he reached his level. We needed Michail to play at a really high level and the level of the Tottenham front players was such an unbelievably high level. We had a lot of the ball and I watched them here against Everton and it was very similar Everton had a lot of the ball and without much of the ball Tottenham were a couple of goals up and it is similar to today. We had the ball for the opening 15 minutes or so but they were two goals up.”

When further questioned about a potential loss of confidence after missing two chances, the manager replied:

“Two chances yeah. I do not know if he is struggling with confidence. Mich is a good guy and he does not come over that way [as a confidence player] but if you are a No.9 at any football club you want to score goals and that will fill your confidence. He had two good opportunities and somebody told me Spurs had four shots on target and we had one and Tottenham scored three and we scored one.”

The Verdict: Could turn to Yarmolenko

An alternative option for Moyes could be to use Andriy Yarmolenko at centre-forward, with the Ukrainian recently back in the fold after a period of compassionate leave due to the war in his homeland.

However, since his return, the winger has netted two very important goals. He came off the bench and scored in the 2-1 win against Aston Villa, and even more crucially, he bagged the winning goal which sent West Ham through to the quarter-finals of the Europa League at Sevilla’s expense.

If the Hammers’ sole striker is unable to produce the goods in the final third, Yarmolenko could therefore prove to be a great alternative option for Antonio, with the former occasionally lining out in a number nine role during his career.

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