David Moyes’ comments after cup defeat makes West Ham’s decision on Reece Oxford even more baffling

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David Moyes noted after West Ham United’s cup defeat that he had two 18-year-olds in the midfield for the game.

In comments reported by Sky Sports, David Moyes has suggested that West Ham were always facing an uphill battle in their Carabao Cup tie with Arsenal due to their lack of depth – pointing to the fact that he started two 18-year-olds in their midfield for the clash at the Emirates.

The Hammers put up a spirited fight, but Danny Welbeck scored the game’s only goal to ensure that the Gunners booked their place in the last four of the competition, while the Hammers suffered their first defeat in four.

And after the game, Moyes suggested that he would not have played two teenagers in the middle of the park if he had had more depth available to him.

“We had to start tonight with two 18-year-olds in midfield and against Arsenal that’s always going to be difficult. We have players in other positions but at this moment we are short on midfield players,” he said, as reported by Sky Sports.

While he is not naturally a midfielder, West Ham fans would certainly be forgiven for hearing Moyes’ comments and feeling that the decision to loan Reece Oxford out to Borussia Monchengladbach in the summer is now even more baffling – especially when you consider the opposition the Irons were facing in the quarter-final and the ground the game was played at.

Oxford was a 16-year-old when Slaven Bilic handed him his Premier League debut in 2015, and showed a huge amount of faith in him by selecting the centre-back in a midfield role on the opening day of the season.

His challenge on that day was to keep Mesut Ozil quiet, and he arguably did better than anyone could have ever imagined as Ozil barely seemed to get a kick in the game as West Ham came away from the Emirates with a 2-0 win.

Oxford may not have changed the game had he been around this week, but with Moyes commenting on the lack of depth in a position where Oxford – who was not playing in his favoured role and was so young at the time that he was still awaiting his GCSE results going into the game – excelled against one of the world’s best players should just highlight once again that letting the academy graduate leave in the summer was a highly questionable decision.