David Moyes
Can you just clarify for us please, ultimately it’s your decision to send on Mark Noble at the end? Did you ask him to go on and take the penalty or did he ask you?
I asked him.
And do you regret the outcome?
Not at all because Mark Noble is one of the best penalty kick takers we’ve got, we had time to think about it, time to make that choice so my choice, my decision. But that is what happens in management you have to make big decisions and sometimes they go and sometimes they don’t and maybe the job is for some people and maybe not for other people, but that’s why you have to take the decisions.
What was going through your mind when you sent Mark on? Was the record of previous penalties dragging into the end of last season as well. Something that played on your mind?
I just actually thought that we had a really good penalty kick taker sitting on the bench and I think I would have been more disappointed in myself if I hadn’t made the decision. So, if I had given it to one of our players and they had missed then I’d be saying ‘why was Mark Noble not on?’ And you might be asking me that question as well. So that’s what happens, decision making can always be right or wrong.
It’s probably typical that Jesse comes back and scores after his performances last season. What did you make of that and what did you make of the performance as a whole? You seemed to be fantastic for 80 minutes, then drop off a little.
I thought we played really well I didn’t think we deserved to be behind. I thought it was a proper game today, a really good game. I always thought we had a chance, so I think we played well I think we’ve done an awful lot of good things, I think there were some really top performances from our players. We’ve tried to go toe to toe with Man United today as much as we could and I think we made a decent account of ourselves and really in truth we could be sitting here talking about a draw.
What did you say to Jesse on the side of the pitch?
I was laughing but more importantly, I said how well he recovered from his mistake in midweek; he makes a mistake which probably cost Manchester United a first win in the Champions League. But that’s what football does you always get a second chance in football to bounce back. Jesse got a second chance to bounce back as a player when he was at West Ham last year so we’ll always be grateful, for what he did for us. I wish he hadn’t scored but we had a chance to get a draw out of it and we missed our chance.
Who was the penalty taker if you had not brought Mark Noble on?
Declan was taking it.
We saw in the summer, with England there was a lot of examination of England bringing players on who hadn’t kicked a ball, to take a penalty and we saw what happened. Does that go through your mind at the time?
Yes, it went through my mind quickly and I asked Mark ‘how you feel about doing it?’ he said he was good, if he had said no then I would not have done it. Ultimately I made the decision I’m the one who asked him and I felt because of his record, I felt that he was the one who would be more suited to take it.
You had a quick word with David de Gea, what did you say to him?
He said he hadn’t saved one in 40, we knew that, so, that’s football for you. We think we’re putting on someone who’s got an incredibly good record with penalty kicks, whether it be in the Premier League or whether it be in Europe but that’s my understanding and I’m thinking Mark going on De Gea has not saved many I’m thinking, well hopefully this is the equaliser.
How concerned are you that barring Noble there is not an obvious penalty taker?
Yes, I am concerned it is something we need to..We just don’t necessarily have someone who is a natural penalty kick taker but it is an easy thing to work on because you can stand and take penalty kick in training but the players quite often do but it’s a different thing when you’ve got to go on the stage and do it. Declan would have taken the kick today if I had not made the change but as you know and the people who watch West ham over the years know, Mark Noble has been incredibly consistent with his penalty kick taking.
How did you think Kurt Zouma performed?
I thought Kurt Zouma was very good. I think his all-around performance, his strength he did a great job for us and we’re trying to challenge the teams getting talked about winning the Premier League. I think Kurt will help us do that and I think that overall the team today challenged a really good team to see if we could maybe push it and get closer to them. So, I’m really pleased with how the whole team played today. I thought overall, it was a good performance, they had periods in the game, we had periods in the game but it was on the verge of being toe-to-toe for long periods.
