West Ham United manager David Moyes spoke to the media at length on Wednesday afternoon ahead of Thursday’s Europa Conference League clash against Anderlecht at the London Stadium.
A win for the Hammers will see them secure qualification for the knockout rounds and potentially even top spot of Group B with two games to spare.
Here is every word Moyes said ahead of that match, the latest team news, thoughts on Gianluca Scamacca, Angelo Ogbonna and more.
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What is the latest team news?
I think most of the players are fine. Micky Antonio has had a wee bit of cold, or the flu, which has kept him out of training a day or two. We’re a little bit unsure on him. We’ve got a couple of knocks and niggles but hopefully, he will be okay.
Has your form in the Europa Conference League this season helped build form in the Premier League?
I think every win you get builds confidence. Whether it comes in the Conference League or the Premier League I think everything helps. You’re trying to get a bit of consistency in your play and results. Thankfully, we’ve been getting a few wins recently which has been really good.
What do you make of the competition you currently have in the squad?
We want real competition. And I think we’re beginning to get a stronger group of players who have been doing well. Last year it worked incredibly well when in the group stages we were able to change maybe half the team; when it really got tough was in the quarter finals and semis when we were having to play a lot of the players who were also playing on a Sunday as well. At the moment we’re in a good place in the group. We want to qualify, first and foremost, but even better than that would be to win the group, because it would knock a couple of games off.
What did you learn from your meeting with Anderlecht last week?
The game overall was pretty tight. I felt in the end we just about shaded it. But our goalkeeper had to make a good save in the last minute or it could easily have been 1-1 but we had enough good chances in the game to have scored more. I think the biggest thing for us is to continue making chances, see if we can get clean cut finishes, which would make our job a little bit easier. But I think Anderlecht played well. We’ve got a group where Silkeborg have shown their ability to win. We’ve got two games at home now in the group and we know if we win one we will probably qualify.
Given the fixture congestion you have, how beneficial would it be if you won your group?
It really would. The week after we’ve got a game Monday, Thursday, Sunday, which sounds incredibly ridiculous but that’s the way the fixture list has got it.
Are some of the summer signings still bedding in?
We don’t feel as if we started as well as we should have done. We felt as if we had a good pre-season. I didn’t think we played well in [games during] pre-season — there was maybe a continuation from that but we’re getting ourselves together, the new players are all getting more acquainted with each other, understanding what we want, we’re understanding them as well, and we’re beginning to get some results. Hopefully that keeps growing.
How pleased were you with the belief your players showed to come from behind and beat Fulham?
I’ve sensed the belief coming back in training. I’m seeing an awful lot of things and thinking this is looking good and going in the right direction. I hope I’m right in what I’m observing. The Fulham game was a shock: we didn’t get off to a good start, and I didn’t see that coming but the big thing was we fought back and ended up getting a good victory at home.
In this congestion period, is it an opportunity to go on a charge of wins?
We’ve won five out of six at the moment. I think that gets a little bit lost. So you say are we ready to go on a charge, maybe we’re on one at the moment? Maybe you’re only going to pick upon it when we’re further down the line because it’s difficult to accept when we didn’t start so well. We’re beginning to go in the right direction. We’re beginning to see signs of a lot of the new players doing really well. We’re seeing better signs of the players who’ve played so well for two years beginning to find a little bit of form — whether it be goals or their general play. We’d missed Daws (Craig Dawson) for the first month of the season at the back, we brought (Nayef) Aguerd in who's been injured since the start so there are one or two things maybe not gone quite the way we want it but hopefully we’re back on course now.
Have you spoken to anyone about fixture congestion?
Yes we have. We’ve tried to do something about it. It’s a congested period as it is. Surely you would try to make it less congested… Surely it could have been played on the Sunday?
It has been almost a year since Angelo Ogbonna’s injury, how impressed have you been with him since his return?
If you think of it, at the time we lost Angelo, I think we were in the top two or three in the league, Angelo was in top form playing alongside Kurt (Zouma). We probably had our best form at that period and it was maybe once we lost Angelo that we started to dip a little bit in certain ways. He gave us left sided balance at the time and it just didn’t quite feel as good after. It’s a big injury to come back from for any player but at 33/34 as he is now, it’s even tougher. He’s doing really well, I think he’s been on course, his schedule is pretty good. I think he can still go again, I think he’s still got a little bit to go. I think he’s still trying to play his way into it a little bit, but fortunately these games have sort of helped a little bit and it’s gave him chance to get some good games. It’s better these than maybe the under-23 games at the moment for him and we are trying to get him ready to participate for the first-team in all of the games.
Are you getting the taste for another long European run?
I think somebody set to me the other day we might have played as many European games as any club. Obviously we’d like to be in the Champions League but the point is, from that point of view, for West Ham who didn’t have European football for such a long time, I actually said it in my programme notes last week, sometimes, you mustn’t forget what we’ve got and you have to embrace it and enjoy it, take it on. I’m not moaning about it, but I am saying that Thursday Sunday is not easy, I’m sure everybody is aware of that, whatever club is in it in any league in Europe has a problem with that fixture list. For us at West Ham I think it’s a great thing, you should never take it for granted because it might not always be there. I see us now maybe saying ‘come on then.’ We started at the back of the pack and we’ve got a lot of horses to pass on the way going forward, let’s start picking them off and see if we can get ourselves back up to that position.
Do you think your run of Monday, Thursday and Sunday matches later this month shows that some organisers maybe have lost sight of the risk to players ahead of the World Cup?
I wouldn’t be so disrespectful and say only England, we’ve got other players. We’ve got the likes of (Lucas) Paqueta and we’ve got the likes of Thilo (Kehrer) going with Germany. We’ve got international boys who are going to go and we’re actually saying now, we’ve got so many games. We are excited by the games, because it is great for us here at West Ham, but then there is a week like this and I don’t quite understand why you wouldn’t change that game back to the Sunday. It’s obviously probably to do with television rights and that and we are very fortunate because a lot of the money which comes into football comes through television. I’m not going to be critical of it but I think a bit of common sense could have taken place there maybe and we could’ve got the game on the right day.
How impressed have you been with Gianluca Scamacca’s recent progression?
I think I have been impressed with him since day one. I remember the first press conference, I think I came in and I said we have seen things thinking ‘ooh, I hope what I’m seeing is correct here.’ Some of the stuff he has done is really good. I have really enjoyed him. He picked up a virus and he wasn’t in a physical enough condition, the way the contract talks went on, it took a long time, he missed a lot of days training. It’s taken us a bit of time just to get him going and it’s going to take a lot longer for us to see the real best of him. I think at the moment, the version we’ve got of him at the moment is doing really well, we like him. He probably had two headers on Sunday, the shot he put past the post, he scores one as well. On the day, he could have maybe had two or three. I just hope he keeps getting those opportunities and those chances.
Do you think the signings you made could make up for perhaps a lack of European experience in your Europa League run last year?
I don’t know if it was quite experience in European competitions because we’ve got within a game or a goal of being in the final. I think what we’ve tried to do is try to add to a group that we felt would help us in the Premier League, in time. We also felt that if we were going to have another run in Europe, this year is the Conference League, then we are going to need more players and probably more players of international quality as well. We’ve gone and bought quite a few of them in. All we’ve got to do is try and give them some opportunity to settle in. I think we are just beginning to see them and I’ve got to say, every one of them are really good characters, that’s the bit that has impressed me more than anything. Really good boys, want to do work, want to be part of the team, want to be part of the way West Ham have been in the past couple of years.
Have you seen an increase in training levels since then have come in?
Yes and no because there are bits where they might need to step up to us, they might need to step up the intensity I want at West Ham and that might be one of the bits we are missing, but if you are talking about quality, undoubtedly I am seeing it at a different level. I am still looking for those players to get to the intense levels which we expect and what we are looking for and what the Premier League drives.
With the squad you have now, do you see Manuel Lanzini as a central midfielder rather than a No.10?
I actually think it is where he is a better player now. I think if you remember when we played Burnley a couple of years ago, he played really well up at Burnley, I think he played really well. We had Tomas (Soucek) or Declan (Rice) out, I think it was Declan out, he played alongside Tomas that night. He played really well as a central midfield player. I actually think at the moment, that is where he is better playing, behind the ball rather than maybe a bit ahead of the ball. I would still play him in both positions, but I just see him maybe playing a little bit better from deeper now. He’s been great for the club and he’s been really good for me in his time here. I like him as a player, I really do like him, but we’ve got lots of players in the competition. We need him to start coming up with some goals for us and create some assists as well.
How are Nayef Aguerd and Maxwel Cornet and when do you see them coming back?
Aguerd is beginning to make his way, he’s done quite a bit out on the grass. I’m hoping maybe next week he might join bits of the football, that’s the play if we can. He’s a pretty good specimen so he’s one I might try and push on quickly, if the ankle is okay and I get permission to do so. Ultimately, we may need to get him a couple of under-23s games and stuff like that, so that is part of it. Maxi had a small calf strain, I’m hoping he is going to be okay, maybe by the middle of next week we can see if we can try and get him back out on the pitch, with a bit of luck.
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