David Moyes
How pleased are you with the result?
I’m really pleased about the result. I thought we did what we had to do. We’ve played much better and maybe not won in the past but today was all about the result. Unfortunately, we’ve had this three or four times already this season, all about the result. The players have certainly dealt with any pressure and anxiety that we’ve had and mainly because we’ve had Thursday games and we’re playing catch up, we’ve obviously got two games in hand as well at the moment, so that can make it a little bit nervy and we were today.
How important was it to start a run of three games in six days with a win?
Really important, but if you look, I can’t tell you exactly about our home form, but I can remember beating Nottingham Forest and beating Everton, drawing with Chelsea and drawing with Aston Villa here. We’ve been on a pretty good run at home, certainly since coming back from the World Cup anyway, with the European games tagged on top of that, it’s been pretty good.
Have you been scratching your head at all about not being able to get out of trouble for a while?
I think it’s mainly finding ourselves catching up. Some of the results over recent weeks, I think a lot of you, I hope you aren’t betting because if you are, you’re probably not winning that often the way some of the results have gone. I think there’s been some shocks and some surprises in some of the results recently, but I actually think that’s more to do with the quality of the Premier League. I don’t think there’s an awful lot between an awful lot of the teams, I really don’t. I mean that from the bottom up to the top, obviously we’ve got a couple of super teams near the top of the league, but I don’t think there’s an awful lot between an awful lot of the teams.
Was the plan to play Nayef Aguerd and Kurt Zouma together at centre-back all season, had they not been injured?
They’ve not been and they might have played their second or third game today. They’ve got a clean sheet, Aguerd’s got his first goal, which is really pleasing. You know what it’s like when you are not in a great position, performances are really important, but the most important [thing] is the result at the moment. I’ve said to the players, let’s work on improving our performances as we go on and hopefully, we can do that.
Lucas Paqueta made ten tackles today, the most of any West Ham player in a Premier League game since October 2012. What did you make of his display?
Those Brazilians are tough tacklers aren’t they, that’s why we bought them here for. Let’s be fair, we bought Lucas Paqueta in to score goals, make goals, do lots of other things, but we’re thrilled he’s got another side to him as well which he is, he’s a really diligent, hard-working boy which we like a lot and we want him to make us more goals, score more goals. That’s the other side of the game which we are hoping for from him.
Is Kurt Zouma okay? He seems to go down injured as the final whistle went.
I didn’t see Kurt there. I did see it right at the end, so I hope he’s okay, I’ll have a check when we get back.
What is your reaction to Brendan Rodgers being sacked by Leicester City? Does that make you nervous at all?
I’ve just been told. Of course, I’m in a results business and I have to do that, I have to get results. I’ve got no protection which stops me possibly losing my job, but what I would say is that I’m really disappointed for Brendan, I think Brendan’s a super manager, I don’t think he’ll be out of work for long, a really good coach. You can look at his record, the way that he’s worked, teams he’s had, how he plays. In the life of a football manager, how long you decide to be in it, there can be bad times, you’ll be very fortunate to be one of the managers who goes through and it’s only good times and you are winning all of the time. There has to be parts of your career that you’re probably doing not quite so well.
Do you sense that clubs down the bottom are panicking?
I can understand the panic, I think the expectation can sometimes be greater by the clubs. I think we’ve got different owners. I’m really fortunate that the owners I’ve got, who I’ve grown to know in the last two and a half years, have been really, really good. I also think that if I was protecting myself I would say ‘hey, we’ve had probably two or three really good years’ which has probably helped. That does, but so has Brendan. Brendan has been a superb coach and manager for Leicester City and it’s probably been really tough on him, but we’re in a world that’s more than likely going to happen. I think it’s happening more now, I wouldn’t say because of the money but there is more money at stake to be a Premier League club and it’s a big thing for clubs to go down.
Did you expect to see more bite from Southampton today?
No, I think Southampton are trying to play and that there’s a style where you could see today, they had quite a bit of possession. I didn’t know if they really helped us too much at the other end. I thought we didn’t do as well as what we wanted to, we didn’t start the game particularly well as we wanted to but we got the goal which meant we had something to hang on to, Southampton didn’t. Southampton had to fight and try and keep coming out and find a goal and we had a few chances on the counter attack and we didn’t really complete them as well as we could’ve done. Overall, I think we just about edged the game and deserved the victory.
Do you sense Danny Ings is feeling isolated up front at the moment?
Yes, but we’re only just getting to know him. He’s someone who probably might need more people around him. We’re not playing at our best and the Nottingham Forest game showed, Danny is a penalty box striker, if we can get the ball more to Danny and give him opportunities, he can score. His record and his history will show that, but we’ve not really been that far up the pitch often enough to sustain pressure which would maybe mean more opportunities are coming. Overall, we’re really pleased with Danny and we’re hoping he nicks us a few goals between now and the end of the season.
