Moyes points finger at players he 'knows' as early West Ham stutter continues

West Ham manager David Moyes has refused to blame the high number of new signings for the club's poor start to the season.

The Hammers were beaten 1-0 by Everton on Sunday afternoon to leave them 18th in the Premier League going into the international break.

Everton at least look like they have direction while West Ham just look stagnant

Neal Maupay scored his first goal of the season for his new side as the Toffees secured their first league victory of 2022/23.

West Ham were very poor in the first half at Goodison Park but created enough chances to equalize in the second 45.

Moyes told BBC Sport: "I don't think we deserved anything because of the way we played in the first half. But in the end we deserved a point.< /p>

"It was more because of the way we didn't perform. We weren't good enough with the ball, a lot of bad decisions in the final third. When we had a few half sniffles towards the end, we couldn't take them."

On Thursday, the Irons won a close game against Danish side Silkeborg IF in the Europa Conference League.

And Moyes thinks the Thursday-Sunday schedule is overwhelming.

"We want Thursday, Sunday. I would have liked it to be Wednesday, Saturday because we would be in the Champions League.

"If you look at [other teams' results from previous seasons] on Thursday, Sunday's results can be very difficult.

"Today was more because of how many times we gave the ball away. Everton did the same in the first half."

On the form of the team, Moyes added: "Not so good today, but it's been better [recently].

"We played well against Chelsea and Tottenham, a few games in Europe where we played well. We won at Villa. We were doing well.

"A result like this makes it look like you're not. I couldn't say we deserved a win but I don't think there was a lot going on between the teams.

"I don't think we're that far away. But we've lost that momentum that we've had for a few years. We need to get it back quickly. Now the majority of our players have played for the past two years and that's what's disappointing."

Speaking to Sky Sports, the Scotland manager added: "We picked up after they scored but before that not so good. The first half was a bad game all round, but we didn't get a result."

Moyes insists the onboarding of several summer signings was not the reason for his side's poor start to the campaign.

He thinks the former team leaders who have been there for a while have "let him down".

"We had a game on Thursday night and we're trying to bring some new players in and find out a bit more about them," he continued.

"But mostly the players I know let me down today with the overall game.

"Players who played last year are also downgraded.

"We showed signs of getting back to it, but I don't think we did that today. When we got anything in the final third, it was almost always the wrong decision We probably missed some big chances.

"We have to keep going and keep working, the players have responded well over the past two or three years and there is no reason why they can't reach those heights again.

"If you're not scoring a lot of goals, you have to make sure you're a very good defensive team. We have a pretty good team, but we have to start showing that, that's for sure."