IF MOYES PLAYS SAFE AGAIN HE RISKS DISASTER

TOMORROW sees the biggest match of David Moyes’s season, and his approach to West Ham’s most winnable remaining game may define his future there. So, will Moyes (below) send out his team to play Leicester as they are now or the Leicester of two seasons ago? Will his priority be to take the game to a team most recently beaten 5-0 at Crystal Palace, or will he seek to contain Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez as if they were still driving the champions? West Ham’s owners want to give Moyes the job full time, but his popularity beyond the boardroom is on the wane. A world-classs team in a world-class s stadium was the promise, and Moyes’s instinctive caution does not sit well with that. In recent weeks, he has s set up West Ham to play the best est possible version of the opposition — creative players omitted, Marko Arnautovic a lonely, frustrated figure leading the front line. At Arsenal, West Ham played as if facing a top-four side, not one struggling to keep ahead of Burnley. At home last month they set up for the upwardly mobile Stoke of several seasons ago, not a team facing relegation under Paul Lambert. West Ham have been sucked back towards the bottom three and face a tricky conclusion to the season with Manchester United and Everton at their volatile new home. Their one good break is that Leicester away is no longer such a daunting trip. After four wins in 18 games under Claude Puel, the Foxes board is readying to sack a third manager in little more than a year and the players are, once again, dissatisfied with their boss. As Claudio Ranieri discovered, they are an ungrateful lot, even towards miracle workers. Had they been guests at the wedding where Jesus turned water into wine, they would have been at the back grumbling about the absence of a cocktail bar, and Puel is the latest victim. It is a familiar litany of whines: don’t like the training, changes the team too much, too distant, no rapport. LeavinLeaving aside that they had a mamanager with a fanfantastic pepersonality anand got him ththe bullet wwithin mmonths of the gregreatest title win in history, there hash never been a betterbe time to visit Leicester. However, it needs a manager who believes that, who can harness West Ham’s potential going forward, and use it to record the win that will, in all likelihood, see them to safety. If Moyes is cautious, it could be disastrous. West Ham have conceded more goals than any team in the Premier League this season, suggesting a defence-minded strategy is a dismal option. It has, however, been Moyes’s default position for some time, which could explain why West Ham are stumbling towards a cliff edge. Wherever they end up next season, tomorrow’s game could decide whether he really is the man for this job.