West Ham’s determination to stand by David Moyes is admirable but risky. It also feels pointless. Moyes remains defiant, insisting he can still turn West Ham’s fortunes around, but the sense around the club is of a slow march towards the exit door. Forget about another push for European qualification: the season is all about survival now and while there is something honourable about West Ham trying to give Moyes a chance to rediscover his spark the danger is that they are wasting precious time and making relegation more likely by refusing to make a change. This is not a sudden decline. Moyes has done a fine job since returning to the London Stadium three years ago but West Ham have been on a downwards trend for a while. They were outplayed during their defeat by Eintracht Frankfurt in the last four of the Europa League last spring and were fortunate to finish last season seventh after winning six of their last 19 games. Somewhere along the line the Moyes project stopped working. The message has not been landing with the players and it is no longer possible to pin it on the demands of European football tiring out a small squad given that West Ham, who have lost the resilience of old, were the third-biggest spenders in the Premier League last summer. An outlay of about £160m should have led to an improvement. West Ham, who are on a run of five straight defeats before visiting Leeds on Wednesday, should not find themselves out of the bottom three on goal difference alone. The teams around them do not have a midfielder of Declan Rice’s quality. Moyes should also count himself fortunate to have been able to spend £35.5m on striker Gianluca Scamacca and a club record £51m on Lucas Paquetá. Equally, there was talk of tension between Moyes and his bosses during the summer. Moyes wasted time on trying to sign Jesse Lingard and on a pointless pursuit of Filip Kostic, whose heart was set on Juventus. The recruitment should have been more urgent. Moyes, who is close with Rob Newman, the head of recruitment, waited too long on some targets. It was no surprise West Ham were undercooked at the start of the season. Moyes’s diligence strayed into caution, though at times the strategy was unclear. Another error was not strengthening well enough in obvious areas of weakness. The former Chelsea left-back Emerson Palmieri has been unable to displace the ageing Aaron Cresswell. No upgrade on Vladimir Coufal was found on the opposite flank. Further forward, attempts to provide an increasingly weary Tomas Soucek with more competition in central midfield were plain weird. What was the thinking behind the signing of Flynn Downes from Swansea? It is messy. Moyes wanted to replace Soucek but has been forced to rely on the faltering Czech. It took him until last Friday’s limp defeat by Brentford to try something different, with Paquetá dropping back to partner Rice. “I am going to look a bit more at him a bit deeper,” Moyes said of Paquetá, who is yet to prove that he is quick enough in mind and body for the Premier League. Perhaps that tweak will get West Ham moving, give them more control in possession and improve their creative threat. Thirteen goals in 17 league games is a dreadful return. Bad luck has played its part at times but Jarrod Bowen, Manuel Lanzini, Pablo Fornals and Saïd Benrahma have dipped in attacking midfield. As for the strikers, Michail Antonio has been out of form for a year and Scamacca, goalless in his past 10 appearances, looks out of sync with his teammates. There is little cohesion to West Ham’s attacking patterns, little style, and it is taking a toll. Belief in Moyes is dwindling in the dressing room. The Scot has clashed with some senior players this season and there is a feeling his counterpunching approach is holding the team back. The atmosphere was particularly tense in the aftermath of the abysmal 2-1 home defeat by Crystal Palace in November. There was sufficient concern for West Ham to sound out Unai Emery before the Spaniard left Villarreal for Aston Villa in October. This cannot go on indefinitely. West Ham are lining up replacements for Rice in the belief their club captain will leave in the summer, but they need to start thinking about the man in the dugout. Yes, Moyes has been unfortunate to lose Maxwel Cornet in attack and to have his defence weakened by injuries to Kurt Zouma and Nayef Aguerd. Consistent defensive partnerships have been hard to find and Thilo Kehrer has been a huge disappointment since joining from Paris Saint-Germain. Ultimately, though, West Ham have become a soft touch. It no longer takes much for them to crack. They led at Arsenal on Boxing Day but conceded three bad goals after the break. They switched to a back five against Brentford and conceded twice from throw-ins. The World Cup gave them a chance to reset but they are still playing the same tired football. It leaves them facing, in the words of their latest set of accounts, the “severe but plausible scenario” of relegation. They are not too good to go down and suggestions Moyes is not under immediate threat, that he could be given until at least the end of the month, feel odd given the downward trajectory. Failure to cope with Leeds’s energy would surely make his position untenable. West Ham, who also face Wolves and Everton before the end of the month, would have to be proactive. Arguments that there are no obvious replacements for Moyes do not wash. Unemployed candidates such as Marcelo Bielsa, Sean Dyche, Ralph Hasenhüttl and Bruno Lage do not appeal, but it is part of a club’s job to prepare for the future. Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino are surely out of reach, but would Luis Enrique turn his nose up at a chance to work in the Premier League? Would there not be value in approaching Celtic’s progressive coach, Ange Postecoglou? Something has to change. Moyes keeps saying that West Ham just need a break. He spoke positively on Tuesday and does not deserve an undignified exit after all he has done for the club. A defiant showing against Leeds could shift the narrative. But the board must be realistic if there is no sign of any change. The evidence is piling up and West Ham cannot afford to wait too long.