Paul Lambert labels West Ham boss David Moyes a ‘really top manager’

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West Ham United host the relegation-threatened side at the London Stadium on Monday.

Paul Lambert has told Stoke City’s official website that he deems David Moyes to be a really top manager, and suggested that the West Ham boss is unfairly judged by those who focus on his spells with Manchester United and Sunderland.

The Hammers go into Monday’s game with the Potters well clear of the bottom three after a couple of impressive results that appear to have handed a major boost to their survival hopes. West Ham are six points clear of Southampton with six games remaining.

Meanwhile, Stoke’s situation is much more bleak with just four games remaining after Monday and four points separating them from the cluster of sides above the relegation zone. And ahead of the game, Lambert suggested that it is likely to be a hugely difficult task as he has nothing but praise for the work that Moyes has done, not just at West Ham but throughout his career.

“David (Moyes) is an experienced manager and has had his ups and downs, as has any manager, but he has gone in there and steadied the ship,” he told Stoke’s official website.

“He is a really top manager, and he cannot be judged on just one or two jobs that never went his way.”

It is surely fair to say that hindsight has made the jobs that Moyes did at Old Trafford and the Stadium of Light look a lot better than they did at the time.

United are only just reestablishing themselves as one of the Premier League’s heavyweights and it is difficult to imagine that many would have been able to do significantly better than what Moyes did given the squad that Sir Alex Ferguson left him.

Meanwhile, the circumstances that Moyes had to work in at Sunderland appear to have become a lot clearer now that they are on the verge of suffering back-to-back relegations and appear destined to find themselves in League One next season.

Moyes did not help himself at times – the same could arguably be said of his time at West Ham – but he looks to be closing towards achieving what he was brought in to do at the London Stadium: keep the Irons in the top flight. A win on Monday would undoubtedly take the Hammers to the brink of survival, while pushing the Potters to the brink of relegation.