David Moyes
What is your reaction to that draw?
A draw is a good result, but ultimately, we would have liked to have won it. There were parts of the game where Tottenham were very good. I think after the opening ten or 15 minutes, probably the turning point was the penalty in our favour. I think the game completely changed. We slightly altered how we started and it gave us a better foothold in the game, we played much better. As the game went on, I thought we had grown into it. Again, the ability Tottenham have with the forward players is immense, you are always on a knife’s edge with them.
After defeats in the opening three league games, have you seen enough to feel you are turning a corner?
We won two against Viborg in between those three games, so don’t forget that.
Are you encouraged by what you have seen tonight?
I was. I was encouraged by what I saw on Sunday, I was encouraged by what I have seen tonight. I have seen us just beginning to get a little bit of rhythm going a little bit, trying to introduce some of the new players. I think Thilo Kehrer has come in and done a great job in the short time he has been here with very little time. We’ve got other players, Gianluca (Scamacca) wasn’t available tonight and obviously, we’ve bought in (Lucas) Paqueta now as well so we’re trying to build towards a new side and build a new team.
To what extent will you continue to build? How much activity will there be on deadline day?
There could be activity but I can’t guarantee really, because I don’t want to say yes I am or no, I’m not. There still could be a little bit, possibly, but maybe not.
Is there any update with Jan Bednarek and talks with Southampton?
No. I couldn’t talk about players at other clubs, I wouldn’t do that anyway.
How likely is it that Craig Dawson will leave?
I couldn’t give you an answer to that, other than we have received an offer for him but apart from that, I wouldn’t go any further.
Would you like him to stay?
Yes, I would.
Can you elaborate more on Gianluca Scamacca’s absence?
Yes. He was ill. There’s a name for it where your gums and your throat [hurt] and he’s had it since after the Aston Villa game. Wasn’t well and hasn’t trained since then. We’re hoping the antibiotics would have maybe kicked in but they didn’t. With a bit of luck, we will get him back tomorrow and get him started, if his temperature is down, but he wasn’t well.
What did you make of Lucas Paqueta on his debut?
Difficult. He never trained with us because we didn’t have the time. But, we knew enough about him from obviously watching him lots and playing him here against Lyon so we knew that he could be creative and he can be creative and he can make goals and score goals. I think there were small cameo bits and he gave us a feel of that. I’m really looking forward to working with him and I think he’s given all of the players a bit of a lift as well. You can see what it did to the crowd tonight. We got a goal back, goals have been hard to come by for us recently but we got a goal back and I thought we kept it going and tried to keep that intensity up right until the end.
How pleased were you with the response after going 1-0 down?
Really, really good, we stuck at it. It was tough because we didn’t start the game well but again, we got back into it and we got ourselves playing well enough to maybe be equal. By the end, I thought the two teams had a go. The quality of the goal Tottenham scored as a counter attack very quickly, and it was nearly done to perfection. Here at West Ham, we get loads of counter attacks and we’re still trying to get them done exactly and get the right pass, the right weight of pass and the right run etc. We are disappointed to lose a goal, but we are up against a good team.
How pleased are you to get a result against one of the bigger teams in Tottenham?
I disagree with your thing, a bigger team. We are as big as Tottenham.
Compared to your other performances?
If you are talking about performances, we’ve started to improve, our performances have started to get a little bit better. In a couple of games already this season, already, VAR hasn’t gone in our favour. Tonight, we get a decision that certainly helps us with the penalty and it gave us a chance. Our performance at times tonight was good. Tonight, there were were a lot of good things we did against a team in form.
