West Ham United manager David Moyes spoke to the media at length on Thursday night after his side’s two win over AEK Larnaca in the Europa Conference League.
Two first half goals from Michail Antonio at the AEK Arena sealed victory for the Hammers in the first leg of their round of 16 clash.
Here is every word Moyes said on the win, Antonio’s goals, returns for Kurt Zouma and Maxwel Cornet and more.
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How pleased are you with the result?
I’m really pleased with the result. I didn’t enjoy long parts of the performance. But the most important thing in a cup competition is to come away [with a win] and we did that. We scored two good goals, maybe could have scored more, but if you’d given me 2-0 before the game I’d have taken that.
How important was it to keep the run going in Europe?
I think that’s nine games we’ve won in Europe now - that takes some doing. When you look at the group stages, and sometimes the disparity between the teams, I didn’t see anyone getting hammered 5-0 or anything like that. Tonight was always going to be difficult. We played a team who, up until Monday, were top of the Cypriot League, who are second at the moment. So I didn’t for a second think it was going to be a complete walkover. We held out, kept a clean sheet which was really important, and got a couple of good goals.
What did you make of Michail Antonio’s performance?
I thought he didn’t hold the ball up well enough in the opening part of the game, but the other parts of his game tonight were important. There’s been other games where he’s held the ball up great and not got the goals. Tonight he got the goals, which were the most important thing. We started the game quite well. We kept the ball quite well, but we never penetrated, we never got behind them, never really threatened them. And it took until about 30-odd minutes before we got that opening goal.
How important was his second goal? Has he got that in him?
I’m glad he has [got that in him], because we need that tonight. I think it will do Mick’s confidence the world of good. Getting goals this season has not been easy for him. We need him. He’s such an important player for us. And we need goals at the club. We’ve brought in Danny, and there’s competition now. Let’s hope it pushes them all on to score more goals.
How good was it to have Maxwel Cornet back?
I’m not quite sure he’s ready yet, to be honest. I felt we could give him 10, 15 minutes at the end and we did do.
Does Michail Antonio’s goals give you a selection dilemma for Sunday?
I want competition. I want the players to be challenging each other. If we got our forward players scoring goals we’ll have some options. I’m really pleased for Mick, because he had big moments last week, two one-on-ones at Old Trafford, which could have changed things a bit, and we didn’t have him at the weekend. He’s just come off with a calf there. I was taking him off anyway, but he felt his calf so we’ll need to check it out."
Do you ever mention last season’s defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt as part of your team-talk?
My motivation was to say that not many players or managers get to the quarter-final of European competitions in back-to-back seasons. That’s the first thing we have to try and do and we still have a big job to do next week. For West Ham to try and get to back-to-back quarter-finals - I’m not being in anyway presumptuous or taking anything for granted, we have to work to get there - it’s not a bad achievement. Then the next part will be about getting to the semi-final if we’re fortunate enough to get there and I’ll mention that later on. The first job, I said to them today, was that there’s not many players and managers who get those opportunities to play in these competitions and get that far in these competitions. We need to embrace it and enjoy it. There’s something different, even in a small stadium, about a European night. Something just has a different feel about it, it’s a great thrill to be involved in this level of competition. I’m hoping we can keep it going.
How disappointing is it to not have Flynn Downes for the second leg?
He opened his ankle up a bit, he’s probably going to get a couple of stitches on his ankle, the bit when he went down. I could’ve taken him off, I was a bit worried when he got the booking so I thought I could make that change but they told me he was already suspended for next week so I thought I’d take my chances and hope he sees it out.
Was part of that thinking with managing Declan Rice’s minutes?
We’re trying to give Flynn the opportunities at the right time, we’re pleased with what he’s doing, we think there are things he can improve on. But it’s not easy breaking into the Premier League from the Championship and if you look the people who’ve done it it can take a bit of time. We hope he continues to develop and we’re happy for him.
What did you make of Kurt Zouma and Nayef Aguerd’s first start as a centre-back pair?
I keep repeating myself because I see things I like and I don’t like - I think we’re still waiting on Nayef, we think he’s still getting used to Premier League football. Tonight’s obviously the first time he’s played alongside Kurt, Kurt had his first game for a long time. There’s something about Kurt playing that just makes us look a little bit more real and proper. Hopefully we can get him in the right condition over the next month or two.
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