David Moyes
West Ham manager David Moyes spoke to the press following his sides Premier League match against Crystal Palace here is every word he had to say.
You scored three goals and could have had more, how satisfied are you?
David Moyes said “I’m really pleased with the performance, coming back after losing a goal early on, so I’m really pleased with how we played. Maybe if we had our finishing boots on we may have scored one or two more.”
Two goals for Tomas Soucek, how pleased are you with how he has done?
David Moyes said “He has done brilliantly since he has come to the country, it was this time last year when we signed him and I think to come and hit the ground running in the Premier League is really difficult at any time, but he has not only done that but he has made a difference with his performances, with the type of lad he is, with his honesty and he has been great for us. He can score and he showed that tonight.”
Six wins in a row in all competitions and four in the Premier League, do you feel you have some momentum building now?
David Moyes said “I have sensed that we are getting better for a while, we are an improved team and I think we have not scratched the surface yet. We have so much more we can give and so much more we can do, so I am hoping the improvement continues and we can keep moving on. We can’t promise that, but we are going to try and deliver it.”
You are up to fourth place in the table, do you get the sense that others are noticing what you are doing?
David Moyes said “I think part of a manager’s job is to raise expectations at your football club, but I am not going to try and be stupid, because perhaps West Ham have done it too often and maybe got it wrong, I am going to try and be a bit more steady and sensible if I can. I am ambitious I want to try and manage teams at the top of the league, I want to be in and around the top, I want to be competing in the competitions if I can and the players are giving me every hope. The players have been exceptional with how they have played, they really have been and they want more., you can sense that in the dressing room.”
If you can make Benrahama a permanent deal that would free up a spot for a loan. Is that something you are pursuing?
David Moyes said “We will be taking Said anyway so whether we do it now or we do it later in the year, that was only to do with a slight medical issue which we had to solve so overall we will get Said done sometime if it is not down now it will get done later, there is no doubt about that. We might need room for loans but at the moment I can’t give you any news on that, I have no update there.”
There was a moment in the first half when Benrahma shot and your frustration showed on the sideline, were you impressed with how he responded to that?
David Moyes said “I thought he played really well tonight and he played really well for the team tonight and it wasn’t all his tricks with the football but it was his pressing and commitment to the team which we want everybody to buy into. If we have Said doing it then we are doing the right thing. Yes, he made a couple of wrong decisions with the final pass or decision but that is the thing we have been talking about that we have been a bit disappointed that we have not got from him but he is new to the Premier League and we can’t be expecting too much too soon. I am sure once he settles down and gets used to it a little bit we will get much much more from him.”
Everyone knows that Tomas [Soucek] can be a threat in the box but nobody has worked out how to stop him yet, have they?
David Moyes said “I can think of great midfield players through the years, John Wark came to mind because he was Scottish, he used to arrive in the box late and score great goals running from deep. I can’t put him in a Steven Gerard mode but midfielders who can get into the box and score goals is a great thing and Tomas is that. He’s a wee bit old-fashioned in many ways but his attitude and commitment to the team is second to none. He is a joy to work with and for a boy to come from, the Czech Republic and do so well in a year is some achievement.”
West Ham might have got to this position in the past and blown it, is it your job to keep them there?
David Moyes said ” want to grow a club, or help to grow a club if I get the opportunity. To grow a club that will grow steadily. It is very rare that you can get to this position from where we have been and stay there. We have to do it in stages, we are doing a brilliant job with the players getting them where we are and we are aware of that. But we are also very much aware that it can easily go. The way I look at it to be honest, is that tonight got us our tenth win in the Premier League this season. I always saw ten wins in the Premier League as enough to keep you in the league because you normally pick up seven or eight draw and that would mean you were safe from relegation, so tonight I could look at it that way and say ‘tonight it now looks like we are going to be a Premier League club next year. But I am not. I am looking at it in a much much more positive way, in a way that we can do better but again I don’t want to say something that I can’t deliver. we are doing a good job, the players are doing a really good job at the minute, so long may that continue.”
Is that part of your under promise and over deliver policy?
David Moyes said “Yes, a little bit of that.”
The team tonight reminded me of some of your best Everton teams, really solid at the back, really creative and dangerous in attack have you surprised yourself in being able to get it to that stage in a little over a year?
David Moyes said “In a way, yes, if we hadn’t brought in a couple of players last January I think it would have been much tougher, the two boys we brought in made a big difference. The improvement in Declan Rice even in a year, the way he has stepped up and the level he has gone to. Aaron Cresswell has improved, Angelo Ogbonna has improved, you can see the performances of [a player] we brought in Vladimir Coufal as well, you can see Pablo Fornals, Micky Antonio who when I came in was a wide player and not a striker, so you have to say the improvement of that group of players has been really really good. But I think they have much more to go, I really do, I think they can do so much more and I am telling them that. I am not saying to them’ great boys you’re are done’ I think they have further to go.”
