West Ham United manager David Moyes has revealed that he hoped to see Saturday’s trip to Brighton and Hove Albion pushed back by a day due to the Hammers’ upcoming schedule.
The Irons have travelled to Old Trafford on Tuesday afternoon ahead of facing Manchester United in the FA Cup fifth round on Wednesday night.
Less than 72 hours later, West Ham head to the Amex Stadium to take on Brighton and Hove Albion in the Premier League before flying out to Cyprus next week for the first league of their Europa Conference League round of 16 clash with AEK Larnaca.
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Those three games will see West Ham clock up 5,747 miles in three round trips in the space of just ten days, before playing host to Aston Villa less than 72 hours after their match in Larnaca on Sunday, March 12.
Moyes had hoped that the game against Brighton on Saturday would be moved back by a day in order for less of a tight turnaround between the trips to Manchester and Brighton, adding that the schedule makes planning for the next few matches more difficult.
“It’s a very quick turnaround, if you look at our fixtures, we have to go to Old Trafford away from home and unfortunately, we didn’t get our game at Brighton moved to the Sunday, which would have helped us greatly,” said Moyes .
“It makes it very difficult, an eight o’clock kick-off at Old Trafford on a Wednesday, and then we’re away to Brighton on Saturday. With it being a FA Cup midweek fixture, which, let’s be fair, it’s not something which we normally have. Normally, all of these cup ties are at the weekend.
“This one getting fitted in makes it a bit more awkward, then, we have to go away to Cyprus. We’ve got three away games in a week now, all with a decent amount of travel.”
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