West Ham United manager David Moyes spoke to the media on Friday morning ahead of Saturday’s trip across London to face Fulham.
The Hammers currently sit 15th in the table and only outside of the relegation zone on goal difference.
Here is every word Moyes said on the London derby, his own future, pressure on him, the relegation battle and much more.
READ MORE : West Ham's stance on David Moyes' future amid sack fears after Newcastle United thrashing
How is the squad looking?
We will know more today once we’ve seen the players train, all the players had a sort of recovery session yesterday, they’re just getting back and we’re gathering everyone back together.
Watching the Newcastle United game, do you take the positive in the team not playing badly, just being littered with individual errors?
I think you've summed it up quite well. I think it’s a little bit where you know you can always make individual errors as a player, I've been one and probably made plenty of them, but you don't expect so many in one night. It added to the way the game went. Look, it’s gone now, we’ve spoken to the players about it. They are well versed so we don't need to say any more about it now.
Do you think you might make a few changes going into the game against Fulham?
I'll tell you one thing about the group of players we have got, they are fantastic lads, great boys, really honest, committed. They’ve done a brilliant job over the last few seasons for us, the way they've worked and results they've got, so I expect the same from them. It doesn’t change, they’ve not suddenly become bad players. You can make the odd individual mistake, that happens in football.
Following your post-match comments, were you thinking there might be a call or a potential chat with the board?
No, I was just trying to make a point. We're in an industry where we can quite easily lose our jobs, that’s the way it happens and if you’re not winning, it’s always possible. I'm no different from anybody else, we’ve just got to try and get on with the job and win the next game.
There are reports that this game is ‘must not lose,’ is that not something you are already thinking anyway?
I think it might have been you who said Everton was ‘must not lose’ and we won that one. I think it was you might have been the one who said Nottingham Forest was ‘must not lose’ and we won that one. Then it was Southampton, you said that as well and he to win at Southampton. When you’ve put that title on us, we’ve stood up and been counted. If you’re giving me that title again, I hope we can stand up and be counted this time.
How stressful is this? Do you think sometimes ‘do I really need this?’
Of course I need it, it's like a drug. This is why you see Roy Hodgson coming back when he’s 75 and Neil Warnock coming back and so many people who are in the game and the journey they are on, they continue to stay on it because they’ve got a great love for the game and they want to stay in it. Part of being football manager is that you don’t win all of the time, sometimes you have to lose and you have to try and learn to deal with it, but when you do lose, you’ve got to learn how to bounce back and we're looking forward to try and bounce back in our next game.
Do you feel that you are raising your own expectations wanting to be in Europe every season?
I think managers’ jobs is to raise expectations, I think we have raised expectations. I think any manager who goes to any club, you have to do that and you have to live the raised expectations. We’ve not lived with this year’s raised expectations as well as we should’ve done but have we raised the expectations here over the last few years? I would certainly think so. But, I can totally understand the supporters, no problem at all. There was a night where we made mistakes and they certainly recognised it as well. I think any supporter who had been at the game would have recognised it. It was individual mistakes on the night were probably the most costly reason for losing the game in the way that we did.
Are you confident in turning that around with the game coming up tomorrow?
Totally.
Do you have to change your thinking for your team selection in Europe depending on the Fulham game and looking ahead to Arsenal next week?
We are really enjoying being in Europe, it's a great thing, and it’s a great achievement to finish seventh last year and sixth the year before meant that were able to be in the European competitions. Last year, we reached a semi-final, I’m hoping that we can get to a final. But always, we've got to think of the Premier League games. The recent couple of years, we’ve been in strong league positions, no problem with the bottom of the year. This year, we’ve got a bigger problem with the bottom of the league, so that has got an effect on our thinking. The teams who are going to qualify this year in Europe, they will find that next year. The teams who have got the Thursday/Sunday games, they will see that as well. It is very, very difficult to be playing in Europe in midweek and then going back to playing your Premier League games. Ideally, we would get some good results which would make those Thursday games a lot easier to handle.
Not that you need it, but it must be nice to have praise from the likes of Aaron Cresswell and Declan Rice recently?
They're really good lads, good players, they set really good standards, they have done over the years. They've been really good to me, but I hope in some way, I've been good to them as well in as much as they’ve had a couple of good years as well. We’ve got to build on it, Aaron Cresswell is a boy who sets really good examples, learned a lot from Mark Noble, been here probably as long as anybody at the club. We’ve got a lot of players here are telling them what their expectations are and what they are doing.
Do you have a message for the fans at the club, considering the changes elsewhere?
West Ham fans have been fine, they’ve been treated to some really good times recently. We had some great nights in Seville and I can remember the nights in Lyon with them and the games at home, we’ve had some great times with them. It’s difficult at the moment, but this is when we need everyone to get behind it and stick with it.
How great was the under-18s FA Youth Cup semi-final win over Southampton?
Fantastic. Young players got to the final of the FA Youth Cup, which for anybody whose been a footballer and played will tell you how prestigious it is to get to the FA Youth Cup final. The boys are doing really well. It’s shown that there’s a development programme in place, which is coming through. We hope that we can continue to build on it. In fact, I hope we can make it much bigger going forward. This side of London has got great potential, lots of boys and girls who play football, I hope we can continue on it. It's great for the boys last night, they won the game well, it was a really good crowd who came and watched it as well.
What are your thoughts on your defenders playing out from the back? Would you rather they just cleared the ball in that situation?
I would rather them try and play and play well, we’ve tried to encourage, tried to do it better. When you do that though, your player can mistakes and I said that on the night. Everybody is human and will make mistakes some of the time. If it's happening regularly then it's a problem, if it's happening the odd time then you can say it can happen. I look back to the greats of the Premier League, who are the great centre halves? John Terry, maybe Rio Ferdinand, [Nemanja] Vidic. Off the top of my head, I don’t think I can think of them making too many mistakes. I’m sure they did, maybe got caught out or other things, but I don’t think many of the top central defenders could get themselves caught out too often.
What are you expecting from Fulham without Marco Silva on the touchline?
I think we're finding that the managers are getting sent off a bit more often for different reasons, whether they think the refereeing isn't good enough or whether we’re too exuberant or whatever it may be. I don’t think it’s something that the clubs are used to now, so I don’t see that having a big change how they prepare. He’ll probably be sitting upstairs mic’d up, can speak to people. I don’t see that being a huge problem and we just go on and take the game as it is.
How much of a miss will Aleksandar Mitrovic be to Fulham?
I couldn't tell you much about Fulham as a squad but I can tell you about Mitrovic as a player and what he has done as a player. He’s done amazing, his goals he scored in the Championship last season was amazing. To be fair, I think he had a season before that in the Premier League where maybe he didn’t get quite as much, he hasn’t half gone on and shown what he can do in the Premier League. I’m sure it’ll be a huge blow to Fulham and I’m sure if it was us, it would be a huge blow to us. Again, it’s more of a question for Marco Silva really.
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