West Ham United manager David Moyes spoke at length on Friday afternoon ahead of his side's FA Cup clash against Brentford on Saturday evening.
The Hammers head to the Gtech Community Stadium for their third round tie in a London derby, just eight days after losing 2-0 to them at the London Stadium in the Premier League.
Here is every word Moyes said on the game, the recent deaths of Gianluca Vialli and David Gold, team news, transfers and more.
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What is your reaction to the death of Gianluca Vialli? Did you ever manage to have a glass of wine together?
I don't remember having a glass of wine but I remember Gianluca Vialli very well. As a player, his years at Sampdoria, growing up as a young boy watching him. Then we came up against him when I was manager at Preston as well. It’s just sad news, it feels really sad. We’ve had a loss ourselves at West Ham this week with David Gold. Really sad news, really young man [Vialli]. I really feel for his family and really disappointing news.
What sort of impact has David Gold’s death had on the club, with the news coming here before facing Leeds United?
I think we were very aware that David was unwell but when these things happen, it hits you hard. He was really supportive here at Rush Green. He was always bobbing in and out, he was someone who I liked a lot. He was an honest man, spoke well, was always supportive when required, but also was straightforward. Someone we liked and someone we will miss because he would come in and see the players, he’d come and have lunch with us. Obviously really disappointed that he’s died but we have to move on and what he would want is West Ham to keep going well, his family are all involved. He’d want the team to play well.
What is the latest team news ahead of facing Brentford?
Vladimir Coufal, we’re going to have to have a look at because he took a clattering the other night. It should have been a sending off. We’ll need to check Vladimir out. Kurt Zouma is getting closer, but maybe not yet, we just need to check. He’s only just going to start training. We’re probably much the same, we’re obviously trying to recover. We played late Wednesday night so we’re still trying to get the players back together and get them ready.
Can a nice run in the FA Cup be a welcome distraction?
Winning any football match is really important. We’ve had a great thrill this year by winning all our games in Europe and topping the group in Europe as we did last year. Last year, we had a really good run in the League Cup, we beat both Man City and Man United in the League Cup so I think if you can get a run in the cup in any cup competition, I think it’s a good thing. It’s really important to do it, but I think if you ask the majority of managers, they will all tell you that the bread and butter is the Premier League. It’s where you need to be, it’s what you want to do. It will always be the most important thing but winning the cup and getting a run for the supporters is really important, good games, day that they remember and I'd love to be able to do that.
Do you think Brentford are in the form of their lives right now?
They’re doing really well, Brentford. I think they are a club and a team which has been proven over the last two or three years. Small steps and I think they’ve done a really good job, the manager has done a really good job. They’ve got a good squad of players, they’ve got lots of players they can choose from. It's a tough game, we had a tough game last week. I don’t know if we quite deserved what we got against them last week but they came in and put one over us. We've got to try and go there and do the same to them.
Do you feel frustrated with not being able to add more players in this month or are you happy with your squad?
Not at all. We and the club are all well aware of it. We still might be active in the transfer market this January. We might try and do some business if we can. But ultimately, the club spent a lot in the summer time and we bought in a lot of players and ideally we're not trying to bring in so many players. We bought in a lot in the summer and we’re still trying to integrate them and get them used to the Premier League. They're still trying to get used to us ourselves but it depends on our situation.
David Gold bought the oldest FA Cup trophy and described it as a “unique piece of football history.” Does that make you want to win the competition even more?
Now you mention that point, yes, I hadn’t thought of that. From that point of view, I’d say yes. It would be great if we could do. I think always at these times, probably all of the press conferences to the managers will be very similar, how much do you want to win the cup, how important is it and the answers will all be the same. We all want to be successful, we all want to win the cups, we want to get through but ultimately, at the end, it’s only one team that can do it. I don’t think there will be one manager out there who won’t try and win the cup.
What did you learn most from last week’s defeat to Brentford?
That we've been a little bit slack in some things that we’re doing, which has disappointed me. I think bits of our play has been really good but we’ve not been able to do better. Sometimes, you need things to go, sometimes you need someone to score a screamer which changes things now and again whereas last year, we are maybe nicking a goal from a set-piece every so often which we’ve not been doing as often. There’s things we know which could easily change it. At the moment what we’re doing is we've conceded a few really, really sloppy goals recently from our point of view, which is not like us. I need to try and eradicate that at the moment as well.
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