David Moyes
How brilliant of a night was that for you?
Really good night. I thought team played well, I thought our young players played well and overall, we deserved to win the game and I thought some of our football was very good.
In terms of rotating players, leaving some out, giving some a chance, did it tick a lot of boxes?
It did, it gave us the opportunity to try things, change things. We had to sort of shoehorn a wee bit of the positions tonight to get a lot of players in who we wanted to play. We wanted Ben Johnson, he is a younger player, Flynn Downes is a young player, we wanted them to be involved with other young players tonight. I actually think the likes of Manuel Lanzini played very well, Angelo (Ogbonna), the seniors took them through. Nayef Aguerd coming back as well. There will be a lot said about the young boys but overall, I have got to say the senior boys, Pablo (Fornals), they all did a brilliant job tonight.
Are you hoping to Pablo Fornals can use those goals to push on and score more goals?
I hope so. Pablo needed that, a little bit of confidence. I gave him the chance to stay back, I said ‘look, you don’t need to come out, we’ve got enough players.’ He said ‘no, I want to play.’ It was good and so did Lanzini. We gave the senior players the opportunity to stay, they all wanted minutes, they all wanted to play and I’ve got to say, they played well, they played really well tonight and it’ll help Pablo with getting two goals.
How pleased were you with teenage duo Divin Mubama and Ollie Scarles on their debuts?
The left wing-back Ollie Scarles did really, really well tonight. I thought his deliveries for the balls in the box and his general all round play for a 16-year-old was very good. We’re really pleased for him and I thought Divin missed a great chance made by Ollie in the first. You could see how much it meant for him to score a goal and what it was and I know it was ruled as an own goal but he is a young centre forward desperate to score goals and it is a great thing to be.
At 16, how much quality has Ollie Scarles shown you to give him this chance?
He’s young, he’s only really come on the scene in the last few months so he’s one of the young ones. We knew about him but you never think they are going to come on but we’ve been pleased. We think he’s stylish on the ball, he’s composed but he’s got a lot of growing to do and he has a 16 year old body at the moment.
How pleased are you personally as a club that including the four tonight, you have given senior debuts to 16 academy players in your time at the club?
This competition and the Europa League has given us the opportunity to do that. The Premier League makes it very difficult to blood young players because of the level of the Premier League and the level of the players you must be to get in there. This competition has been great for us to get some young players a chance to show what they can do. I will always try and give the young players opportunities but I’ve said to them today, once you get that chance, you have to take it. Football doesn’t always give you lots and lots of chances, you need to try and jump on it. I thought the two boys today have done a decent job.
What do nights like tonight mean to West Ham, with four debuts and a bench full of academy players?
I want the young boys at West Ham to think if they are doing well enough, they will get a game in the first team or we will select them, if they are doing well for the under-18s or they are coming up, we will be looking at them because our [under-21s] have had quite a difficult year this year but that’s why we’ve dropped to the 16s and some 16 and 17 year olds. We want everybody to think there is a way through to the first-team if they can. It’s the way I believe in it and I think it is the right way. As I said before, it’s got harder in the Premier League to blood players in so this competition, for example, and also the Europa League has been helpful in that way.
How pleased were you to see 2,849 away fans at the game, despite it being a dead rubber?
I thought we had a great support. I think all of the teams, I am sure the supporters here would have been looking forward to coming to London and our supporters were looking forward to coming here as well. I think there’s a lot of love for football all around Europe to take the chance to go to different cities, to have a few beers, watch the game. It’s great to see the supporters, we’ve been doing this for two years with them now, we’re in our second year now. Hopefully, they are going to be getting used to it and enjoying it and we are hoping we can keep the run going again when we start back up in March.
What impression did you get from FCSB from these two games?
This is an extremely famous football club, worldwide, winners of big competitions. I think the last time I came to Romania I lost 5-0. The football has always been strong here. The Premier League has moved on so much, the quality of the players, the level of the players. We probably played better tonight than we did at the London Stadium, we may have done that tonight. It’s a great club this and it has been a great club, I don’t know all of the history, I don’t know the recent breakup, I don’t know all about that but it’s certainly a club I remember being younger as a football supporter.
When the draw was made, did you expect to win every game in the group and become the first Europa Conference League team to win every match in it?
No. It is credit that we could win all of the group games, which we have done. We’ve maybe not played as well, certainly in the earlier games, our form is beginning to improve, also in the Premier League and also here, we’re beginning just to get a bit more confidence. I didn’t expect it, I thought we had a really tough group. Anderlecht, [FCSB], I didn’t know much about Silkeborg, who have proved to be one of the finest passing football teams I’ve seen for a long time and probably a big surprise to you boys as well as a lot of people.
Did you say anything to the FCSB manager after the game?
I said to him I wanted to pass on my best wishes to the coach who has just left. I don’t like it when I see coaches lose their jobs or change their job. It’s a really difficult business we are in as well, it’s easy for people to be critical. Until you sit in the chair and you do it, it becomes very hard so I asked him to pass on my best wishes to the coach.
