David Moyes
Moyes on Chelsea sacking Thomas Tuchel
Yeah, very surprised and also disappointed because I wanted the managers to stay in the job. It’s a difficult job but I think we also understand that it probably comes to us all at some time. So disappointed for Thomas and very, very experienced manager. I don’t think Thomas will be out of work too long if he chooses not to be.
Moyes on Scamacca starting against FSCB
He [Scamacca] only really started training so I’m going to work towards him getting back if we can. We hope to get him back but he’s really not been well for ten days so if he’s fully fit I’d be very surprised but certainly he trained today and he’s getting closer to fitness.
Moyes on being in the UEFA Europa Conference League
It’s brilliant for us. It really is. I even sense all the players want to play, they know that you worked hard all last season to try and qualify for Europe so they will want to be involved. They all want to play and I think that’s a great thing.
Moyes on West Ham winning the Conference League and going all the way
Well, I think the last bit to your question is difficult to assess really at the moment. I think the bigger thing is it’s always easy at this time in the competition, we thought that last year in the Europa League until a lot of the teams get knocked down from the Champions League and then you find who comes in. So we’ll have the same situation when the teams that have dropped down from the Europa League. So it’s difficult at this stage. But I think it’s only when those teams start to drop down do you see it.
Moyes on the group and home form in the competition
I’m not earmarking any particular game as the most important, I’m earmarking them as something we should want to try and win, whether it be home and away we have to try and do that. We start tomorrow night, we’re looking forward to it. I think in footballing terms, many people will remember the name Steaua Bucharest, I know they are FCSB now, but I understand that people will remember that name greatly. We’ve got Anderlecht in the group which will be remembered by many people as well. So I’ve got to say, we have a group with some history in it over a few years.
Moyes on Chelsea defeat
You move on and you go again, it’s like anything else. You know, we ultimately didn’t win the game and we have to move on and we take a lot of positives from the game and these things happen in football.
Moyes on FCSB
Obviously, we’ve watched a lot of games. We’ve tried to get to know the players as well as we can. We’ve started to get a better idea and understanding of FCSB and yeah, I think we understand. We know that they’ve probably had a difficult start in the league but overall you finished second last year in your league and a bit like us, we finished very strongly last year but not started the league quite so well. We’ve recognised one or two players we need to deal with but I’m not going to tell you who that is.
Moyes on playing a weakened team
We’ll use a squad of players but if you look at how we worked last year, we tended to sort of have half of the players playing who have been in and around the team but this year could be different. We might go and approach it differently but overall last year worked very well for us.
Moyes on West Ham’s bad memories against Romanian teams
Neither do I. I managed Everton in Romania and lost there so it can happen. But time also moves on as well so you don’t look back, you try and move forward.
Moyes on FCSB fans not getting enough tickets
Have you been to the London Stadium before? What I’m saying is we’ve had unbelievable support at the London Stadium. For a lot of the games in Europe last year we had full houses in them all because it’s such big nights for West Ham. But UEFA set the guidelines for how many tickets and where your tickets are as far as I know. I don’t deal with the tickets but I’m doing my best to make it sound like I do but I don’t deal with the tickets.
Moyes on fans not taking the competition as big as the UEFA Champions League
I have to say, last season we had an unbelievable year where we travelled to Croatia, we were in Germany, we were in Spain so I understand supporters all around the world want to follow their team and they want to go to the games in the country so I think coming to London will be a great experience for many of the Romanian supporters. So I really hope they can get tickets to the game. It’d be good if they can because last season we had some fabulous atmospheres inside the stadium and I’ll have to say we’re looking forward to going to Steaua and seeing that as well.
Moyes on how special it will be to reach the final this year after reaching the semi-finals last year
I think so. I think the group stages are never the bit that makes you go ‘great, you’re looking forward to the games’ but I think everybody’s hoping that you qualify and then when it comes to the knockout games I think they become the exciting ones. But we enjoyed our experience last year and the start of getting through the group stage. I mean this time last year we won in Dinamo Zagreb away from home and then we came back and we had really good victories and we won the group. I think the group stages are a little bit to get through but I think we’ve done a really good job last year in winning the group and we’ll try and do so again.
Moyes on London Stadium becoming more special
I think so. But also think that each and every other year you get back into European football of some sort is really important. That’s why I think that we really celebrated a year and a half ago or two years ago when we got into the Europa League. We had a really good go at it last year. And we celebrated this year as well because we saw even being in the conference league, we only missed out on the last day of the season in the second half of a game when we would have been in the Europa League. We pushed really hard, we ended up in the Conference and we want to have a go at that. I watched the final last year with Roma and Feyenoord and I thought it was an excellent game. If you look at Jose Mourinho who’s won all the competitions, what Jose Mourinho considered how big he felt it so I would love to be in the position where I could try and attempt to win it but lots of games to go before you can talk about that.
Moyes on balancing between Premier League and Europe
It’s a good question. I think maybe some games yes we will be able to really concentrate on it and but in other games I feel as if we won’t be able to concentrate on it. So from that point of view then a lot of it will depend on the league position and how we are going in the league as well. I’ll need to take those things into consideration.
Moyes on summer transfer business
I’ve been really pleased with the business we’ve done. I think we’ve added some really good players but that has to show and nobody can say yes and nobody can say no at the moment because you’ve got to get them, as you rightly said, that time to gel, that time to settle in but I think on paper I’ve got to say I think they look good signings a lot of them. Young, up-and-coming hungry players who I hope to develop and continue to improve.
Moyes on being relieved there is no VAR in the group stages
Not really, I think VAR in the main has done lots of good things. Find it difficult why we couldn’t have it in our game because it was in UEFA then I don’t see why it shouldn’t be in our game. I didn’t know that was the case.
Moyes on Tuchel getting backed then sacked
No, I think the clubs are in that way will have their reasons. I don’t know the ins and outs of Chelsea so I’m the wrong person to ask about Chelsea Football Club. All I can tell you is that Thomas Tuchel just over a year ago was the world champion. Was it just over a year and a half ago the European champions. Have been competing in a lot of the cup finals recently as well, that’s my memory. So I have to say, I think he’s left some stamp and some mark. I think maybe all the turmoil in the change at Chelsea has just meant it’s caught up on the manager’s position as well. Possibly the amount of different players they have had to bring in and change.
Moyes on convincing players Conference League is as big as the Europa League
For us this is huge. If you’ve said that we’ve been in the Champions League and all those competitions and were finding our way down I would say we might think different. No, I see this as two years in European football, I don’t think West Ham have done it back to back in I don’t know how long. So from our point of view we see it as part of growth. I’d like to be in the Champions League and let’s be fair, for long periods of last season we were competing for the Champions League spots.
Moyes on Cornet improving
I don’t think he was in great condition on his arrival. I don’t think it was quite right. And when you think of the miss he had in Viborg as well, he missed a great chance to score and get it started there. But no, I’ve definitely started to see him beginning to flourish and begin to get used to us and us get used to him which is what we’re talking about. So the signs of him getting better and looking as if he can score a goal and make a goal, we’re hoping that we would get the benefit of that in the coming months.
Moyes on Paqueta’s physicality
Yeah, he tackled and worked really hard for the team and I think sometimes the players who come from South America are quite tough physically as well. Obviously, his background and where he’s come from has shown that you have to stand up and be strong enough and tough enough. So that was a really good sign we saw that because you know, the Premier League, you need to have a bit of that in here as well in the Premier League.
Moyes on Paqueta being able to handle playing in Europe and the Premier League
He’s quite a robust guy. I think if you look at his playing record over these years I think he’s played 40-plus games just about in the last three-four years wherever he’s been so he’s playing record is pretty good as far as injury goes
Moyes on playing Flynn Downes
He missed out with a poisoned toe in Viborg. I’m looking at Flynn with a chance thinking this could be an opportunity to learn a game and see how he does and give him a start so we’ll look at that closely. We’ve not completely got everything set but he’s certainly in my thoughts.
Moyes on Dawson, Soucek, Cresswell and Aguerd injuries
Craig Dawson started back training and you probably saw him today. He’s back out, he’s not been out training long, he’s still sort of finding his way back in but he’s getting back in amongst it now. Ben Johnson is not training yet. He’s still out. Aaron Cresswell is not training yet either so he’s not available. Tomas Soucek had picked up a foot injury from the game at Chelsea. So Tomas could be a question mark for me. So that’s what I’ve got at the moment.
Moyes on Aguerd being a long-term absentee
Yeah. He returned back on Tuesday. He’s been away, he’s now out of his boot. He’s fine. He’s actually seen the specialist to get the six weeks go-ahead today for the next part of it. So hopefully that’s all good. He looks good at the moment, he’s come back sort of ready to go.
Moyes on Bowen’s start to the season
Actually, I thought he started quite working back in super condition last year and I think that actually helped him and I know maybe it didn’t show his goals but I think he come back in physical a brilliant condition. Yeah, a little bit slow in the goalscoring, he’s been a little bit unlucky in one or two other things but hopefully he’s getting much closer to where he was.
Moyes on fixture congestion
I was concerned about the last week really. If you look at last week when we knew the Chelsea game was put on Saturday, it could have been on the Sunday but because Chelsea had a game on Tuesday we couldn’t do it. So there was lots of those situations for me, we can’t really, no point in complaining anymore, there’s no point in even mentioning it, it’s just a case of getting the game so we played Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday. So it became, if you look at our programme at the moment, it’s so difficult and that’s why we need the squad, that’s why we need the players and it’s why we need all those players fit because of the amount of games we’ve got and it doesn’t get any easier as we go on. It’s not the programme eases at all. So it was interesting that I think FCSB got a game called off for this game, was that right? So we have to keep squeezing the games in.
Moyes on Dawson being able to start
Probably not. He’s probably not fit enough. I mean, he’s probably missed the best part of six weeks of pre-season with the thigh strain so he’s making his way back and we would like to get him back quickly if we can but I don’t think I can get him back that quickly.
Moyes on Dawson being okay to stay at West Ham
He has to be. If you’re under contract at a football club that’s part of your job. You have to get yourself ready to play again.
Moyes on moving fixtures like what happened with FCSB
No, I don’t think so. I think in this country we go on, we play the games, we put them out. But the only thing I do think is you know, you’d have hoped that maybe they looked at it. We’ve got another one coming where we play at the moment Bournemouth on the Monday night. So we’ve been put to the Monday night fixture and we’ll play on the Thursday as well. And the Sunday. So thinking that way you would say, and it’s a long way away, we see that as completely unfair. Why would we be asked to play Monday night, Thursday night and Sunday? Just like this week we’ve been asked to play Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday and a Thursday if you put it in that way as well so I don’t know what that is, four games in nine days or something. It’s the way it is and I think that last week was really tough and I think the effort the players put in against Chelsea and right to the end and nearly getting something from the game was a great effort after the week had gone.
