David Moyes has been pleased with his West Ham squad's performance in the first half of the season but is looking for the team to push on as the business end of the campaign approaches.
The Hammers players are back in training this week having been given time off during the winter break to rest and recuperate and now attention is turning towards the three competitions the Hammers are left in.
First up is an FA Cup clash with Kidderminster Harries before the return of Premier League action next week and finally, the Hammers head into a March last-16 Europa League tie. Having given his squad a rest, Moyes is confident West Ham are ready to get back to winning ways starting this weekend.
"They all enjoyed their break and had the best part of a week off, so hopefully they’re all refreshed and ready to go again and hopefully it’ll have done them the world of good," Moyes told West Ham TV.
"They’re in great spirits. We know how well they’ve done in the first half of the season, so they should be in good spirits and we’re going to try and go into the second half of the season really positive. We’ve hopefully freshened them up a bit now, so we’re looking forward to the remaining part of the season."
Moyes has set his sights on beating last season's tally of 66 points and for glory in either the FA Cup or Europa League as he seeks to end the Hammers' 42-year trophy drought.
"What we’re really looking forward to now is what's coming ahead of us in the second half of the season," he added. "I see nearly every game being a cup final. I hope we’re in a cup final somewhere along the road, but I really do think that we've got nearly every game now will be a cup final because it’s either meaning we’re challenging for places in Europe or we’re trying to get through in the FA Cup or trying to get through in the Europa League. So, I see the second half of the season being really exciting for us."
Despite not making any transfer signings in January, Moyes is confident his players are up to the task and will be doing all he can to get every inch out of his squad.
"Part of being a manager is that you don't always have the best players, but your job is to try to make them the best they can be," he said. "So, I see it as my challenge to try and get them the best they can be, try and squeeze every little bit of the orange and get everything out of them. And I think on most occasions we are.
"We're trying to get everything we can. We’ve got some players who've been in stunning form, in sparkling form, scoring goals, playing well. And I think we're on the right tracks to building a good team."
Whilst the manager dreams of lifting a trophy with the Hammers, he has admitted the priority has to be the Premier League.
"We can only ever take one game at a time, and I really want to stay strong in the Premier League and I'm determined to try and hang in and see what we can do right to the end. Because I believe that the league is your bread and butter and if you do well, then it shows you've got a level of consistency and you're doing a lot of things right most weeks," the Scot said.
"Would I love to win a cup? I certainly would. I think having good cup runs is really important for the supporters and I think it's important for the club as well. But, you know, everybody wants a good cup run and we do as well. I think we had a pretty good run in the Carabao Cup, albeit we wanted to go a bit further than we did. But we want to start getting near the semi-finals and finals and winning cups if we can.
"And I think the European competition is a really big, big thing for us because I think we're all excited about the thought of the draw. I mean, there is not a bad team left in the competition at the moment. And we've got European football in March to look forward to, so there's a lot of things we can really get ready for and be excited about."
