‘Cost us’: Moyes says West Ham were bullied by one Southampton star

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David Moyes admits his much-changed West Ham United defence struggled to cope with the presence of Che Adams during Sunday’s 1-1 Premier League draw with Southampton at St Mary’s, speaking to the Hammers website.

With Craig Dawson injured and Kurt Zouma ill, the always-energetic Adams would have been licking his lips at the prospect of going head-to-head with Ben Johnson and Thilo Kehrer – a new-look centre-half partnership thrown in at the deep end by necessity and circumstance.

And though Southampton’s Scotland international didn’t manage to scribe his name onto the scoresheet, he still caused more than enough problems to earn a namecheck by Moyes following a hard-fought 1-1 draw on the banks of the Solent.

“I wouldn’t say that we didn’t start well. We started quite well, but we allowed them into the game a little bit,” Moyes reflects.

“We allowed Adams to bully us. But today was a day when we didn’t have any real central defenders in the game. (This) gave them a chance to get up the pitch quite quickly and get second balls.”

Declan Rice scores equaliser in West Ham United’s Southampton draw

Kehrer and Johnson held their own for the most part. But, as Moyes himself points out, neither player is really a ‘natural’ centre-half; Kehrer and Johnson having spent much of their career in a wider, full-back role.

“We’re not going to get it completely right all the time,” Moyes adds. “But we are trying.

“Today, not having any centre-halves in the team probably cost us the game. Because we didn’t have enough toughness at times in the game when they got it up to Adams in the early part. We weren’t physical enough and they got a goal from it.”

Romain Perraud scored a deflected opener with 20 minutes on the clock; his second Southampton goal and his second, funnily enough, against West Ham. An impressive response from Moyes’ in-form visitors resulted in a wonderful Declan Rice equaliser in the second half, with Gianluca Scamacca and Lucas Paqueta both missing excellent chances.

West Ham have now lost just one of their last eight games.