David Moyes
Job done?
Job done. Yeah. I mean, we’ve done a professional job today but I think throughout the group, we’ve done a pretty good job to have three away games and win four and really the other one we drew and it was an own goal in the last minute as well. So we have to say I’ll give great credit to the players for the winner. We are club which is relatively new back into Europe. So I’m really pleased but I think the effort the players put in to get to Europe last year have shown in the competition and really pleased with a whole squad
Mark Noble’s first senior European goal.
He’s made such a contribution throughout the years at West Ham and it’s his final year, as everybody knows, he is contributing still. He missed a penalty, a big penalty earlier on in the season, but since then he scored one against Man City and he scored again today. So he’s a really valuable member of the team. I’d always thought that he would be needed in the front half of the season, especially with all the extra games and he certainly helped us out.
Is now the time to step back and realise what you achieved?
It’s something which I’ve actually not taken in yet because today I was saying we have a game in a couple of weeks time [against Dinamo Zagreb] which will be really important. But I knew that if we could get the job tonight [that would be great] we were professional we’ve not played as well as we have done, but overall, we did a job to get us through and come here and win. So it’s probably a really good sign when I’m not overly pleased with how we played but we’ll still come away with a relatively comfortable win.
How important is Michail Antonio?
He is really important to the team in the way we play. He gives us a figurehead and gives the opposition different problems. So we need him on top form. And it’s good because it’s always good to have come here and not needed him tonight. So we were able to give him a bit of a rest and hopefully, he will benefit now over the coming weeks.
You gave a debut to 17-year-old Sonny Perkins today.
Well, I’ve got to say I’ve given quite a few 17-year-olds and a few 16-year-olds debut too so I think it’s always pleasing when you give a young boy a chance. He’s really disappointed he didn’t score the header but he’s deserved it as did Dan Chester’s there were a couple of others on the bench as well. They are beginning to knock on the door. I want to be able to use them and if they perform and they run around the way that they do, and he does well he will give himself every chance of getting another game.
We heard you constantly telling Tomas Soucek to play higher. Is that something that you always do?
I thought Tomas had dropped back and played a bit deeper and I don’t think it was needed I thought we could build up without him joining in the build-up. I wanted him to play higher ahead of it and then leave the build-up to the defenders.
Will you go into the last-16 fearless?
I think we’re going in with confidence, we’ve done okay in the early games, but it will become a different competition, and I mentioned that yesterday, a different competition after Christmas time and now it’s March for us. But we’ll have a chance to look at the teams who are playing in February we’ll see how those games go but it’s a great achievement for us to be in European football in March when you consider this year is the first year we’ve been in Europe for a long time. And I do think that the effort you need to put into being in European football in the Premier League is unbelievable that the standard that the teams the quality of the games, so I’m really pleased it was a good effort from all our squad and all the players playing time in this competition.
Where does this period rank your managerial career in terms of enjoyment and satisfaction?
Well, as a manager when you’re winning, it always enjoyable. So I’m really enjoying it and I’m really, really fortunate to have a group of players who are performing and the effort and the work they put in week after week is tremendous. I’ve got some really talented players who continue to improve so I don’t see any reason why we can’t keep challenging pushing on competing whether it be the Premier League or competing in Europe. I’d be happy to take on most teams. I hope we’re able to show that in the coming weeks and months.
