West Ham United manager David Moyes spoke to the media at length on Friday night following his side’s 2-0 defeat to Brentford.
First half goals from Ivan Toney and Josh Dasilva sealed three points for the Bees, inflicting West Ham a fifth straight league loss, their worst run since April 2017.
Here is every word Moyes said on fears of relegation, pressure on himself, Lucas Paqueta, the poor form and more.
READ MORE: West Ham player ratings: Ivan Toney and Josh Dasilva goals put Hammers in real relegation battle
What did you make of the performance?
We played well tonight, we played really well in the first half and played well in the second half as well. Got sucker punched with a couple of throw-ins in the first half, so we’re dissapointed with that and obviously, we played well but just didn’t have enough quality in the final third. To be fair to them, they defended their box really well.
How worrying is the lack of quality considering how long it has been an issue for?
It has been a running theme. We have been pretty good defensively before tonight but tonight we got done with a long throw. Have to credit Brentford. We have been talking about final third quality for a long time now and not scoring enough goals. Tonight was a night where we played really well with the ball, dominated most of it. But we couldn’t make a good enough cross or finish. Declan hits the post, Daws just misses one. We get a penalty and then it’s a couple inches outside the box. If we had got one of them to go in, that would have been important.
How do you change it? Personnel? Tactics?
We have tried a bit of both tonight, we tried a bit of personnel, tried tactics. We tried to do something about it. We tried to find a way through with all but getting a result out of it.
Thomas Frank has said you were better in the first half, do you agree?
I thought we were better in the second half too. We had to alter it to get a goal which is why we probably weren’t as good with the ball in the second half, but in the main we were the better team.
Do you just need a bit of luck or something to go for you?
I think tonight we earned it, the way we went about it. I only have praise for the players tonight. nothing else. Their effort, commitment, how they went about their job. how they kept going right to the end, kept going at 2-0 down. A couple of corner kicks later on. For me, it is only praise. Of course, we know where we are failing, in the final third and we have just started to loosen a little bit defensively.
You’ve started to concede goals, is that something that can happen?
It can be but in our position, let’s be fair, until the first goal we’d completely dominated the game, they hardly got up the pitch. So overall, Brentford do, they take long throws, they work at them. They are club that are diligent with how they do their work, so you’ve got to give them a bit of credit. We didn’t win the first header, we didn’t get to the second ball. That is my defensive problem, I need to sort that better.
Do you need the fans to just stick with you?
I think the fans have been very good, I do. I thought they were good tonight because they knew their team played well tonight. They didn’t get the result they wanted but I thought the team played much better for them. The result is all that is ever seen. That’s the way I saw it.
Are you in a relegation battle?
I’m hoping it’s not the case but I’ve got to say I’ve lost a few games here at home recently, before we went six unbeaten but now we’ve lost a couple, so we have to be aware that we’re going to have to pick up points somewhere. It’s disappointing that we’ve not picked up any.
How do you go about changing it to get back on track?
We tried to change it tonight, we tried to change it. We tried to play a bit better, find a different way, we changed a few people around to see if it helps, changed the system slightly tonight as well. We are trying to find ways of doing it.
Are you worried that you are changing things and it still has not worked?
Tonight, I wouldn’t say was the first time we did it, but tonight we played well. I did.
Is it unfair to be under pressure after recent seasons you have had?
I don’t think it’s unfair, because I think the business we are in means that normally when you go five games where you’ve not won, you can always be under pressure. I totally get that. But you feel bad when you lose one, never mind two, never mind five. Obviously, that is football, I understand that totally. I only want the best for West Ham because it’s been a great club for me and the club’s done well and we’ve sort of taken it into a little bit better of a place than I think it was before so I’m determined and sort of desperate to keep it there. I don’t want it to go back down and get dragged back down, so I’m hoping that we can get ourselves away from where we are.
Are you going to persist with playing Lucas Paqueta in a deeper midfield role?
Yes, I probably am. I’m going to look more at it. I thought he played well at times tonight, looked like he was desperately running out of steam, probably because of the way the game had been played, especially in the first half. I think I am going to look a bit more at him a bit deeper and see how that works.
Do you think you need more from him and Gianluca Scamacca to get out of this rut?
I am, but it’s easy picking on the new ones. You’ve got to look at the ones who’ve been here and do usually score. You’ve got to say: ‘Come on, you boys are part of it as well’. Really, if we’re looking, all the people who we’d expect to be scoring goals are down on it so we have to try and find a way to get them back on it if we can.
Do you think your side looks low on confidence?
I don’t think we’re necessarily low on confidence. We think there have been some good bits, even in that first-half against Arsenal, when we’re 1-0 up at half-time. It’s not as if we’re losing games. Tonight we’ve lost a game when I think we’ve played well, the best we’ve played here in a while. I don’t think we’re low on confidence but I get the point that the confidence starts to drain if you don’t get goals or your centre forwards aren’t taking their chances or iif every time the opposition go up the pitch they nick a goal.That would and can drain your confidence.
Is it more frustrating that you’re not playing badly and struggling?
I’m saying that we’ve been playing average by my standard and we’ve got a few levels to go above it. But average in the main quite often would get you average results - you might have picked up a couple, you might have lost a couple. But at the moment that average at the moment isn’t getting us results. We have to get better than average and I thought tonight we were better than average. In some departments, you can question that we weren’t as good as we should have been. We’re trying to improve it, we’re trying to find ways of getting goals. Tonight, we came really close but we couldn’t get any goals.
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