West Ham United manager David Moyes spoke to the media at length on Friday afternoon ahead of the Premier League trip to Bournemouth on Sunday.
The game at the Vitality Stadium, which sees 14th host 15th in the Premier League table, will be one where the Hammers will look to bolster their four-point advantage over the Premier League's relegation zone.
Here is every word Moyes said on the game, Declan Rice's transfer value, the Europa Conference League win over Gent, Gary O'Neil and more.
READ MORE: Every word David Moyes said on West Ham’s Gent win, Declan Rice, Lucas Paqueta and Europe
How are the squad fitness wise after the second leg win over Gent?
I think everybody is okay, we are just recovering the players from last night. The medical team will feed back to me later in the day, let me know if everybody was okay. Hopefully, we are all fine.
Was the 4-1 second leg win over Gent your most enjoyable match of the campaign so far?
Well it's always nice to reach the semi-final of any cup competition, and yes, it was really enjoyable seeing the boys playing well and scoring goals. Hopefully, we will take a lot of positives from it, a lot of confidence as well. We can park it for a few weeks just now and our focus is solely on another big run of Premier League fixtures.
Do you think Declan Rice’s personality and confidence rubs off the West Ham squad whenever he returns from England duty?
I think when you are 23/24, what Dec is, I think you should be going and learning all the time. Every trip you're away, you should be hoping you are coming back and feeling better about yourself. Working and playing with excellent players. I do believe that when he comes back from England, he’s always an improved player. He's had a great few seasons playing for England, been one of the standout players over recent seasons. We’re glad to have him playing as well as he is for us and hopefully, that continues.
Anton Ferdinand has said that performance will have added a few million pounds onto his transfer valuation. You have already said he is worth £150million. How much is he worth now?
I’ve talked about it and it’s up to other people to make that judgement. I’ve told people what my opinion is.
Do you feel the pressure on yourself has subsided recently?
Do you think that? No, I think every game as a manager you go in, you are feeling a level of pressure. Whether you are top of the league needing to win, that win keeps you up at the top, or whether it’s points to keep you out of the bottom, I think every manager has a level of pressure. Obviously, there will be one or two teams in the middle band maybe trying to get a higher league position, which will be really important. There will be teams trying to get into Europe. Yes, I think most managers go into most games with a level of pressure.
What have you made of Bournemouth’s form and the job Gary O’Neil has done?
I think he’s done a brilliant job for Bournemouth, it really has. I think most people would have maybe seen Bournemouth as one of the teams who could get relegated. I’ve got to say, I see the opposite, I see a really good team Bournemouth have got, I think they are just about safe if you ask me and I think he’s done a great job.
Why do you think Bournemouth are close to being safe and how far away from that are you?
We’re in a group which is still fighting to get the points. I think the reason that we gave Bournemouth that title is that I think if you look at their run-in, they’ve got a lot of games which I could see them picking up some points in, which at this time of the season, is important. We’ve just said to win four out of six and to win at Tottenham last week was, I wouldn’t say it was unexpected, but you would have seen Tottenham as favourites going into the game. You have to give them a lot of credit for how they are doing
Is that an illustration of getting momentum at the right time?
I definitely agree with that. I think at this time of the season, if you are trying to win titles or if you are trying to stay out of the bottom end of the league and you’ve got to try and find a way of picking up some momentum in winning games. I think Bournemouth have done it and they’ve done it in a bit of style. It’s not as if they've just beaten lower teams, they've beat Liverpool I think they had had a win against, they’ve now beaten Tottenham, I think ran Arsenal really, really close. They have shown really good signs, Bournemouth.
What do you put Arsenal’s turnaround in form down to mainly?
I think we’ve got a good team, I just don’t think we’ve performed as well as we could’ve done at different times. I think probably since coming back from the World Cup, our levels have been much better. We’re beginning to score a few more goals, which we hadn’t done before, so have to try and keep that up.
Because you did not make too many changes for the second leg against Gent, does that mean you may make some for the trip to Bournemouth?
I might do, I’m going to have to see. We will have to see what we've got. We’ve got some fresh players who could come in, so we will see what we are going to do.
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