David Moyes
What did you make of the result?
I think we’ve played better this season and maybe not picked up the points we’ve deserved at times or we’ve maybe played well and things have gone against us with decisions but the most important thing is, our finishing today was miles more clinical than it has been in any of the other games this season. The boys who struck the shots were clean, they were clinical, which got us the chance of winning it. Our performance today was probably not quite as good as we’ve had in other games, but we were more clinical and in the other games, we’ve not shown that really. Probably in the end, we had two or three counter attacks where we possibly could have scored another goal as well.
What did you make of Gianluca Scamacca’s performance?
I thought they both done a really good job. I thought Gianluca was very good. I keep saying and I’m only reminding people, Gianluca was out for three weeks with a virus, just in case anyone had forgot to put that in their pieces. We really like him a lot, we think he’s slightly different from what we’ve got, he can link the play up, he can hold it up. He’s not a target man, I wouldn’t call him that by a long way, but he’s got ability in different ways. We’re looking forward to him, we’re still trying to get used to him, we’re still trying to use and integrate him. With his all-round fitness, to go 90 minutes in the Premier League, we’ve still got a long way to go and that is part of bringing him on and trying to get him correct. You have just got to trust what we are saying and we’re telling you the truth.
What pleased you in particular about the win?
I thought we were a wee bit more at it than we’ve been, I thought we were a bit more resilient and showed a bit more toughness. I actually thought Tomas Soucek done a brilliant job of winning the ball back for the team, recovering the ball, probably better than he has done in a lot of games. I thought Tomas deserved a big mention just because of his [ability of] winning the ball back. When he first came, he played a huge part in what he did for the team.
What is Maxwel Cornet’s injury?
He felt his calf, so that was it. I’ve not had the chance to speak to the medical team yet, I’m not saying it’s a calf strain but it looks like something to do with his calf.
How pleasing is it to see Jarrod Bowen open his scoring account for the Premier League season?
It is huge for Jarrod. Jarrod is a really good player and I’ve told Jarrod, look, if you score five or six goals, I am sure you will be close to that aeroplane when it goes to the World Cup. If we can get him close to the goals, I think Jarrod will score and I think he will score the goals, he’s got it. You’ve seen it today, it was a typical sort of Jarrod Bowen goal, somehow he worked away and probably in the first half, he had three opportunities to score, he came inside, was a bit unlucky with one, the goalkeeper saved one. That was more like what we hope from Jarrod Bowen, getting three or four attempts at goal. The biggest thing was that he was clean. His contact with the ball was clean, which beat the goalkeeper. In truth, it won us the game because it certainly gave us a little bit more room.
How is his finger? It looked dislocated.
He’s just told me and actually, the physio just came over and said he’s done something to his finger and said it was pretty bad.
It looked it was pointing the other way?
Was it? His feet have been doing that a few times this season.
Did you expect Ruben Neves to be playing as a centre-back today?
No, but when Neves went to the back, it meant that it was going to make it harder for us because we know his quality on the ball. He’s a really, really good football player, so we knew it would make it harder to maybe get the ball back and we had to be a bit more patient. There’s bits of it in the first half I didn’t enjoy because we couldn’t get the ball because they played well. I think Neves was a big part of that because he’s a quality passer of the ball. If we could get the ball more in the box, we thought we could hurt them and punish them and we did a little bit with Mick [Michail Antonio] but we probably didn’t punish them as much as we should have.
Did you start Thilo Kehrer at right-back based off his showing for Germany there against England?
If you look at it, it’s the first time we’ve had [Craig] Dawson back. We’ve not had Dawson all season. We get Dawson back and we get a clean sheet. We saw Kehrer play, it was good that he got a run out for Germany at right-back but we knew [it] when we were signing Kehrer. We watched him play left-back quite a bit as well, so it was possibility that he could play across the back for us which took us to him.
How pleased were you that Jarrod Bowen and Gianluca Scamacca kept at it after missing earlier chances?
They did. I was pleased because Gianluca, I asked when he came up, the chip when the goalie spills it, he said the goalie touched it over the bar, I don’t know if it was going in or not, I’ve not seen it again. He could’ve got in tap in there off the goalie at that moment, so he had a chance. I thought Jarrod had two or three. I said Jarrod, ‘go and put one of these away’ and we didn’t but in the end, he got his goal. He’s been working hard for it, Jarrod, he loved his trip away with England, he told me it was great. I can see him back and hopefully, after being away with really good players, he can pick up a bit of confidence and score me some more goals.
How pleasing is it that two of your primary sources of goals both opened their league accounts for the season tonight?
I agree. They are hugely important for us, if you are going to have any success, you need centre forwards who are going to score you goals. If it’s not him, you need your inside forwards, your Mo Salah’s, your [Sadio] Mane’s and all these players are the one who add to the goals tally. Jarrod Bowen has been really good at that. Last season, he scored 14 or 15 goals so you need those players to get you the goals.
