David Moyes blames one man for West Ham United’s defensive struggles this season.

Even though there have been demands for David Moyes to be fired, West Ham is actually doing rather well this season. We still have a strong chance of making it to the Europa League quarterfinals as we currently hold seventh place in the Premier League standings.

Declan Rice’s £105 million move from the Hammers to Arsenal in the summer brought about a complete overhaul at the London Stadium.

The twenty-five-year-old spent four brilliant seasons at West Ham before moving to the Gunners. He recently acknowledged that he is still getting used to the intricacies of his new role at the Emirates, and it appears that he is playing in a more advanced position for them presently.

Dec is currently among the top center midfielders in world football, both up and down the field. It’s difficult to argue otherwise.

There was undoubtedly a stronger focus on Rice’s defense when he was playing at the London Stadium. Is the reason we’ve let in so many goals this season because of the England international’s absence?

According to the Evening Standard, Moyes gave the following response when questioned about why his team has been playing so poorly defensively this season:

“Declan Rice has been greatly missed.” Declan was able to aid us and cover up a lot of stuff, in my opinion.I would think that he is currently the best player in England. No matter how excellent your new additions have been or how well they’ve performed, you’re going to be impacted if you lose the best player in England. We’ll sense it, his miss.

Only seven teams have allowed more goals in 27 Premier League games this season than West Ham.

It’s a valid criticism, but I contend that Rice lacks the defensive mentality of Edson Alvarez, and the Mexican really offers our back four superior cover.

I think that the actual causes of our back-row woes this season have been the terrible form of Nayef Aguerd and the agonizing retreat of Kurt Zouma.

Clearly, David Moyes does not believe that Rice’s departure is the only reason for West Ham United’s defensive issues. If he does, things will go really bad.