West Ham United manager David Moyes spoke to the media at length on Wednesday afternoon ahead of their Europa Conference League semi-final first leg against AZ Alkmaar.
The Hammers host their Dutch opponents at the London Stadium in the first of two legs on Thursday night, with the winner facing either Fiorentina or Basel in the final in Prague next month.
Here is every word Moyes said on the game, dreams of lifting the Europa Conference League trophy, last season’s loss to Eintracht Frankfurt and more.
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How is the squad looking in terms of fitness and how is Kurt Zouma?
He’s had a day back. He’s just started back really, he’s just trying to see how his ankle is and how he’s getting on. Hopefully, he’s making good progress.
Does tomorrow’s game come too soon?
It’s a good chance that tomorrow is probably too soon but we will see how he feels tomorrow and we will make a decision on that.
Do you have any fresh injury concerns?
I don’t think there’s anything of too much note. I think everybody’s [okay]. There’s a lot of tiredness, a lot of fatigue around every camp at the moment in the teams in the Premier League but I think we’re all okay.
Can the win over Manchester United work to your advantage in terms of fatigue?
I don’t know if it will work to our advantage but it will certainly give us some confidence we hope, we’ve been missing it at times this season. It was a great performance, the players played ever so well and I’m hoping that we can back it up again.
Can you use your semi-final defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League 12 months ago as more motivation?
I don’t know if I can use it as a motivation, but I think we can hopefully use it as a learning tool and maybe bits we can probably pick from it when you look back at it on how the game went and we were near enough chasing the game from minute one really chasing the tyres, as you say, from minute one. Hopefully, we can pick up, we can be better than that. Overall, we played a really good opponent, who went on to win that tournament.
What would it mean to you to reach a first European final in 47 years?
It would be terrific. I think to reach any final for any team is a big thing, everybody wants to try and be successful. It is very difficult to be a manager to be successful at a football club all of the time. It’s a hard thing, we’re trying. It was a great season last year getting to a semi-final last year. We’ve done amazing well to be in a semi-final just now. We’re hoping that we can go one step further and make a final.
Although it was over 15 years ago, have you re-lived your win as Everton manager against AZ Alkmaar in recent days?
I’ve reminded some of my staff that I had a game in Alkmaar with Everton a long time ago when I was the manager there. Yes, but I think there’s been that many games, probably 500 or 600 games since I did that, so time has moved on.
Do you think West Ham are big favourites for this game?
No, I wouldn’t say so because I’ve got a lot of respect for AZ and the way they play and what they’ve got. I think they’re having an amazing season so we’ve really got a tough opponent. I think any Dutch teams are usually good. I think they are always good footballing teams, well-coached, so it will be a tough game for us.
Was it hard work for your scouts to learn about AZ Alkmaar or did you know a lot about them already?
I knew something about them. I knew about the way they are rebuilding their club with young players, the model they follow. They’ve got a lot of exciting young players. They are following the way that several clubs have gone, maybe a little bit towards the Moneyball side of things, signing a lot of young players which I really like. It’s a great model, if it suits your club. But I’ve got to say, they’ve got talented footballers, their young players are doing exceptionally well, just won the UEFA [Youth] League as well. At the moment, it looks like they are building for the future, but they’ve also got a very good team at this moment in time as well.
Watch out for Mexx Meerdink, he impressed in that UEFA Youth League run.
They have some terrific young players and I saw one or two who played against Lazio who were featuring, but were still playing in the young team. Let’s be fair, it’s something which the Dutch have always been renowned for is producing young players and their young teams have always been exceptionally good.
Do you feel like this year, you have more momentum and that things are picking up rather than the fatigue of last year?
I remember as Sir Alex Ferguson always used to talk about, this was the time of year where you had to be at your best. It tends to be that games are really important semi-finals, finals, league games you have to win. Having your best form at this time of the season is always important. I do believe that we’re playing some of our best stuff just now. I think we can still get much better and I’m hoping we’re going to show that in the coming games.
Do you think you are now seeing the benefit of who you signed and your summer business?
Yeah, I think I’m beginning to see what we signed, which is full internationals from different countries, boys who had proved they had talent and shown their worth in other leagues. Coming to the Premier League at times can make it very difficult for people to settle and it’s not just us, it’s many clubs and many players. But I do believe that many of them are beginning to find their way through it and beginning to understand it and thankfully we’re doing much better.
You said before the Frankfurt game last year that was the time to win a trophy. Do you feel the same this time around?
It certainly made me realise that every tournament you play in is incredibly difficult to get to a semi final or a final. Certainly here for example to win any of the major trophies in the UK, with the quality of the teams – we saw one of them [City] last night playing a game – and the standards of the teams you’ve got to beat. I think what we’ve done in Europe last season in getting to the semi-final and the teams we had to beat, we lost to the winners of the tournament in Eintracht Frankfurt. I think this year with the season being more difficult has been an amazing achievement. We know its seen as a lower competition but to still be at this stage is great for us. I said before you can’t take European football for granted. Every year there’s so many teams in the Premier League trying to get in that position. With us finishing sixth for the Europa League and last year seventh for the Conference League, that’s no mean feat. We know we can only get into Europe through winning this competition. It would be great if we could try and do that.
AZ Alkmaar have the youngest team in the Europa Conference League, do you look at that as them being inexperienced or fearless?
I look at it from a good point. It’s a great model if you can get it to work. Because the team’s winning, they’re doing well, they've got momentum, they’re in a good division with super teams. Maybe we will (go into the game as favourites) but we’re going to come up against a team that’s got young, hungry players who are playing really well at the moment. We’re going to have to try to use our experience. Undoubtedly we’ll have more experience than maybe Alkmaar would have. But overall, that doesn’t always get you the results. We have to try to use it and give ourselves the best advantage we can.
Is this a meeting of two football factories, give your under-18s success this season and AZ Alkmaar being European champions at under-19s level? Is that the right way to go?
There will be some clubs who do it differently, the model that we’re talking about, AZ’s, is quite extreme in a way, how they might choose their players. But I’ve always thought that bringing young players in is huge. Holland is a country who are one of the best at developing their own young players and giving them opportunities to play.
You will sit here and say you are focused on the semi-final, not thinking about the final, but players dream, Jarrod Bowen said he dreams of scoring the winning goal, managers secretly dream, you need to embrace that, not hide away from it?
We don’t hide away from it. I have always said I want to get to the final, but when you get to a semi-final you have another opponent that you have to respect. You have to be a good side to get to a semi-final. AZ are a good side and have beaten some good sides like Anderlecht and Lazio, and they played at Ajax at the weekend, so I don’t think them coming to us will be a big fear for them. Do I want to get to a final? 100%. We will do everything in our power to do so.
Are you able to properly enjoy Europe now? Previously it has been used as a distraction away from the Premier League.
We can breathe a little more easily after the result at the weekend. Our results in Europe have been really good, scoring goals and winning both home and away. We have to keep that going and if we do then we have a great chance of getting to the final. But first, we have an opponent who we cannot underestimate in any way.
Given the context of this season, would reaching the final be your greatest achievement as a manager?
To get to a European final, it could be my best one (achievement). In the past I've got to a Champions League quarter-final with Manchester United, lost on penalties in the quarter-final of the Europa League with Everton and last year we reached a semi-final here at West Ham and this year, we’re in a semi-final. I want to try and take it a couple of steps further, and I would refer back to the serial winner in Jose Mourinho, who found winning this trophy so special for him and his football club. For me, if ever I needed somebody to show how hard it was to win a trophy, and he treated it as if it was so important.
Do you feel you have repaid the board since the ‘Moyes out’ banner at Fulham last month?
Over the last two seasons we've had successful years at West Ham, finishing sixth and seventh. Obviously this year's been disappointing and we would have liked to do better, but not in Europe – we've been excellent in this competition. I would say that the board have been clever, have thought about and I hope they realise – and people outside the club realise – that they have come to the right decision. Overall, the support I've had from David Sullivan, Karren Brady, the Gold family has been great, and despite all the outside noise going on they have been incredibly supportive.
When you have must-win matches this season, you have won them. Does this give you confidence going into this match?
It does, because I think we’ve got big players. I think we’ve got players who have played in big games, big competitions and I think this is the sort of moment. They were probably thinking this season, this is what it was going to be and we’ve been disappointed we’ve not had that. This is as close to a big occasion as we can get at the moment. This is where you hope your big players can stand up, come out and show exactly what they are capable of. They showcase themselves and if we continue playing as well as we have done in some of the games, we will give ourselves every chance.
Do you think conceding early on in last season’s semi-final was an example of the occasion maybe getting to the players?
I don’t know if I would say it got to the players because I actually thought we were in a good place at the time. I think it’s just one of those things in football where you hope it doesn’t happen and you learn a little bit from it. We talk about small things which are details which meant that probably after a minute, we were chasing the tie after that and the rest of the game and also, having to go to Frankfurt for the second leg as well.
What lessons do you think your players learned from that Frankfurt defeat?
It starts from the top and me as the leader. Your emotions and how you deal with them. I got myself sent off in the second game, which didn't help my team. We were up against it at that time, down to ten men and things hadn't gone particularly well for us. I still think that's something we need to control and do better. We play in a league which is probably more physical than any other European competition, which is admired and respected throughout the world because of the speed of the game, tempo and intensity. The learning points are watch that you don't do anything stupid and make sure you give yourself every chance in the game.
What has your recent interaction with fans been like?
It is incredible and the supporters I bump into all say wow and the amount of people coming to the games. There are very few club's around Europe that could get the support of 62,500. I find that all West Ham supporters are buzzing by the chance to get to a final. Last year being in a semi-final, we were all thrilled by it but disappointed we didn't make the final. We are hoping to go one step further this year.
You promised Lucas Paqueta you would dance if West Ham win the Conference League, is that still the case?
It would be that dad's dancing again! I don't know if I promised it and I don't want to dance with those Brazilians, have you seen their moves? But let's hope that there's an opportunity to try and do that. A bit of that disco fever in the bag.
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