West Ham United manager David Moyes spoke to the media at length following his side's 2-0 win over Derby County in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Goals either side of half-time from Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio sealed a win at Pride Park on Monday night, setting up a trip to Manchester United in the fifth round.
Here is every word Moyes said on the game, the transfer window, Michail Antonio's future, Kurt Zouma's injury and more.
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How pleased are you with the result?
Really thrilled that we got through. It was never going to be an easy task coming to a team who have gone on such a good run like Derby and also a club that’s got lots of Premiership potential and it’s had it in the past. Not easy, but we got through and done the job.
How important was it to see Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio to get on the scoresheet?
It's been really important that they got goals. I'm pleased for Jarrod because it gets him in the wee knack of scoring at the moment so hopefully, that continues. Mick getting a goal tonight was huge as well because we’ve been missing his goals for quite a while. Overall, really pleased to get the goals, but more importantly, pleased for the team because we got ourselves a result, got ourselves through in the cup. Derby played very well tonight and you can see why they are doing so well in the league and they caused us quite a lot of problems at times, but overall, maybe just that little bit of class and quality told when it was required.
Can we expect any arrivals on transfer deadline day?
Maybe, couldn't be sure though. I don't wanna get anybody too excited by that. I’m just not completely ruling it out because I don’t want you to say I’ve said something and then I change my mind. Just generally saying that there’s a chance, yes.
What position would that be in?
Well, I wouldn’t be telling you if that was the case, because you would only start speculating.
What can you tell us about Harrison Ashby’s departure to Newcastle United?
It was the boy’s decision, the boy didn’t want to stay and he only had six months left on his contract. We had an offer from Newcastle in the summer and he wanted to go then, but we chose not to in the hope that we could get him to stay but he’d made his mind up so that was the reason why.
Do you expect any more departures?
Turn up tomorrow and I’m sure there’s a chance that something might happen.
Is there any chance that Michail Antonio leaves the club before the transfer window closes?
Money talks in football everywhere but at the moment, no, I’d say there's no chance. Let’s be fair, there’s probably prices for every player around the country but at the moment, I don’t think there’s any price we are interested in taking for Mick. I’d probably say no to that.
Do you think you need to add to your squad for the second half of the season, with two cup competitions and the league?
I think the only thing we've got a problem with is we’ve got a couple of injuries. We’ve got an injury to Danny Ings, who we bought in and we’ve got an injury to Kurt Zouma, so if both of those players were fit and firing, then I don’t think I would’ve needed anybody because we’ve added a centre-forward to it, but we’ve just got ourselves a little bit short with Kurt picking up an injury and with Danny Ings picking up an injury. But, we believe they’re not too serious, so don’t think they are long term injuries but again, I’ve not got the crystal ball to tell you they’re coming back and they’re going to be fine and they’re not going to break down again. It’s a real difficult decision, but we spent all of our money in the summer so we’ve not got lots of money to spend in this window, that’s for sure, and we’ve turned around 12 or 15 million on Danny Ings.
If you lost both of them for a month, could that be really damaging to your season?
Yes, it could, but what you’ve got to do then is you’ve got other players to bring in like Thilo Kehrer is here, Angelo and Nayef Aguerd. Up front, we are hoping Gianluca Scamacca is not too far away as well. In the same breath, you want plenty of cover, but you don’t want too many where it can become a problem.
What is the latest on Kurt Zouma’s injury?
He’s back. We think there’s a little bit of a tear at the top of his thigh. We’ve not really put any date on it because we generally are trying to get a correct diagnosis, how long we think he is going to be. He is a very quick healer, Kurt, if I’m being honest so hopefully, it’s not going to be too bad.
Do you think it will mean you will have to go into the loan market to replace him?
I would prefer to go with what I’ve got because I think bringing in loan players, it’s got its ups and its downs but quite often, there’s a bigger story to talk about what there can be if it doesn’t work, you’ve got another player who is maybe not quite settled. Ideally, we will go with what we’ve got but I’ll make a decision probably tomorrow to see if we have to do something quite quickly or last minute.
The West Ham fans were singing about going to Wembley and a European tour, can it still be a good season for you?
I think it is a good season, what we've not done is we’ve not got the consistency in our performances this year which have got us more results. We've got a huge amount of hard luck stories, which everybody has but we feel as if we have. We should be doing better, we should be further up in the league.
We had a great European campaign, started off decent enough in the FA Cup, if you want to call it that. That’s why tonight I've been able to change the team a bit about in the cup games and the boys in Europe have done so well. Those lads, when it gets to these competitions, feel as if they are deserving an opportunity to play. That’s why tonight, we wanted to get Flynn Downes in and Pablo Fornals, whose not played for a few weeks and Ben Johnson.
We wanted to make sure all of those boys are getting fit and ready and prepared for what is going to be a really difficult second half to the season for us but hopefully, maybe a productive one. I’d love to take West Ham to a final, if possible. Whether it be in Europe, be at Wembley, one or the other would be great.
Was it nice to give Declan Rice a rest tonight?
Dec was quite keen to probably get a little bit of a breather tonight. It suited us as well. We’ve probably been able to leave him and Lucas Paqueta out tonight, keeping them right. We’re back from the World Cup.
Ideally, I would've played my strongest team I could tonight, I would’ve put everybody out.. Winning the games is so difficult in the FA Cup, as you can see by all of the rounds, you see everybody’s games, but I just felt the boys who played in the European games and performed so well deserved the opportunity. If they weren’t going to play, they would probably be sitting on their hands maybe for probably a few weeks longer so it was good to get them out and good they got a win and kept their very short run going at the moment.
How impressed have you been with Nayef Aguerd?
I can’t say his first name and he’s digging me out all of the time. I’m calling him Nath and Nathan and honestly, I’m saying please give me a wee bit of leeway here and a bit of room here. Yous will need to come up with a name I can get right.
We really wanted to buy him two years ago, he’s a really, really good footballer who I think as time goes on, people will really see he’s really good on the ball, stylish. What he’s not ready yet, he’s not really prepped for the Premier League which is the case for a lot of players coming from the French league or German league aren’t and we missed him for the first six months. I would hope by this time, he was going to be ready.
It looks like it’s going to take the whole of the second half of the season to get him ready, so it looks like it’s going to take the whole of the second half [of the season] to get him ready. We like him a lot, he’s got some really good attributes and I think he will big a plus to us and will get stronger and better as he goes on.
Do you think a back three suits him better?
No, I actually think he’s better in the two. At the moment, we’ve gone with a three, we’ve got a little bit of a run going. We’ve just found a way but if we had our own way, I think we’re probably going to be happy playing with a four and I want to be able to mix and four and a three and not be completely predictable. While Kurt’s out, we’re just a little bit short there.
Do you think Jarrod Bowen is a streaky player with goals or is it confidence?
I think confidence is a big word for Jarrod, I really do. I think he’s someone who needs it, wants the goals, wants to score and you can even see the way he’s scoring and taking his goals now, tonight you thought he looked like a finisher. The other one, he gets in, I was a little bit disappointed he didn’t get the third one, because he had a great chance to score a third one but I think Jarrod has been a huge player for us in the last couple of years and proved it.
Probably the first four months of this season, August to November, he’s probably had his biggest dip for us in terms of goals and assists. I’m hoping he’s getting back on that and getting closer to the form he showed closer to the England squad. Not shouting about it too much, too soon but it’s good signs in the last couple of games.
You have been drawn away to Manchester United five times in the last seven years in cup competitions. How much are you looking forward to that tie?
I’m really looking forward to the game, I think it’s a really good game for us at West Ham. I think maybe, at the moment, it’s the games we need because I think we’ve got players who want to play in the big stage and players who can play in the big stage. Look, there’s none bigger than Old Trafford, so I’m saying to the players ‘look, take it on and challenge them.’ Man United are playing very well, the manager is doing a good job there so it will be a tough, tough game but why not. If you’re going to get to a cup final, you are going to have to find a way of knocking a few of the bigger teams out on the road.
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