West Ham United manager David Moyes spoke to the media at length on Friday morning ahead of Saturday’s trip to Brighton and Hove Albion.
The Hammers head to the Amex Stadium on Saturday afternoon hoping to record back-to-back Premier League wins for only the second time this season, having not done so since the start of October.
Here is every word Moyes said on the game, Wednesday’s defeat to Manchester United, Declan Rice, comments from Roy Keane, Danny Ings and more.
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What is the latest team news?
Kurt Zouma is doing better and Maxi [Maxwel Cornet] is coming on. We’ll see how he is today. Hopefully we’ll get them closer to the first team in the coming weeks but I’m just waiting to see how they are, picked up a couple of injuries from midweek so I need to see how they go as well and see the medical team later today.
Do you take lots of positives despite the defeat to Manchester United?
I can take a lot of positives from it but obviously I said at the time and I still feel the same, am disappointed. I think we had a huge opportunity to get through in the cup and we didn’t quite mate.
What did you make of Roy Keane’s comments on your side’s defence in that FA Cup defeat?
Roy was correct as far as the defence went, we were poor in the later part of the game. In recent weeks, we just got a clean sheet against Nottingham Forest and we've defended pretty well for most parts of the season, it's probably one of our strongest areas, even though we agree it has to be better. I totally agree in the last five or ten minutes, it was not that good.
How important is Danny Ings and how impressed have you been with him so far?
What I have seen is what I expected and what I hoped I will continue to get from Danny is that he’s scored goals throughout his career, we hope that he continues to do so. I think sometimes strikers getting towards, I wouldn’t say their final years but nearer the end, they know their job even better. They know exactly how they should do it, where they should be. They have the nous to do it. Maybe they do not have the same dynamic speed like they did when they were younger, but certainly their brain gets them into the right positions which obviously gives them the chance of scoring.
You have struggled against Brighton and have not won any of your last ten away league games. Can you pinpoint what that is down to?
Brighton have been a bit of a bogey team for us, so we have to try and overcome it and we have to change that if we can. Our away form this year has been disappointing, we need to find a way, recently we've had a draw away at Newcastle away from home, we had a draw away at Leeds United but we've got to find a way of picking up points on the road and we will try and do that again this weekend.
Recently you have changed to a 4-3-3 and it has meant you are better in attack and pressing. Is that something you plan to stick with?
I hope all of your tactical views are correct because that sounds as if it is good and going in the right direction. We played that way earlier in the season and we couldn’t get results, so we had to make some changes, so we changed to see if we could get ourselves steady and win a few games. I have to say we’ve come through a period where we’ve played with three at the back and we will continue to chop and change for the games where we think we need to do so. We’ve tried to find a way of scoring more goals and that might just be the difference, and the new players coming in might be the difference as much as anything. The systems can work sometimes, sometimes they don’t. In recent weeks, we played a system which got us some good results. Let’s hope it continues.
How impressed have you been with Brighton and what kind of tactical challenge are you expecting tomorrow?
I think we've all been impressed with Brighton over many years because of their build, their model. I think there is models throughout Europe which are interesting and exciting to look at it. I always talk about the Red Bull model and how well they've done it with their clubs. I think Brighton, I don't know how many years they've been at it for, maybe ten years now, Brighton, you see the players they've bought in are younger, they've been able to go out and go out and buy young players who are maybe not ready, give them a few years before they put them in the team and they've got so many good young players are coming through now. Credit to Brighton as a football club and how they've done it. Not everybody does it the same how, but how Brighton are doing it is a very good job.
Is it resiliency that you are hoping to see improve after the Manchester United defeat?
I used to use the word flakey here at West Ham and I've got rid of it to be honest because we’ve not been that in the last couple of years but we certainly were for the last 15 minutes at Old Trafford. We are disappointed in those last 15 minutes of the game. From my point of view, for most of the game we put on a good show but it's no point being that, no point in coming and turning up and only doing it for a period and not fulfilling right until the end because that’s probably where my anger came from because that’s not the way my teams play and I said that after the game.
Why do you think Brighton have been able to frustrate West Ham for so many years?
I don’t know, I think you’d need to ask so many of the other managers, including me. It’s not just been me who it’s been hard for against Brighton, it’s been several managers.
How impressed have you been with how quickly Roberto De Zerbi has adapted to the Premier League?
I think he has adapted really well, himself. I think Brighton have tended to pick and choose really well, whether that be players or managers. The choosing of Graham Potter, certainly now the choice of their new manager has been very good. I think he has fitted in very well and had a good start, but longevity in the Premier League is very hard to come by. You have to keep ploughing out the wins, you have to keep trying to find a way of getting results. There’s always difficult times in the Premier League, it is never just one way.
How challenging do you expect the rotation of the squad to be in the next couple of weeks?
It's always not an easy thing, when we play Thursday-Sunday football. I don’t think the Premier League has helped us by putting this game on Saturday, that’s for sure, because we played Wednesday-Saturday, and I think that could have easily helped. I don’t think it’s something the Premier League go out of their way to help necessarily. So we take it, no problem, we turn up and we will play. We’re going to have to play a lot of Thursday-Sundays which we are looking forward to because being in Europe is a big, big thing.
What did you make of Roy Keane’s comments on Declan Rice saying he must improve to become a top midfield player?
I think Declan has played really well for us. For a young player to have what 40 England caps at his age. No doubt he is going to go on and be an England captain in the future, or I think so. Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. I think he’s played really, really well and I think he’s going to go on and be a top player. Hopefully that will be with West Ham, that would be our choice. We would like it to be here. I believe he will go on to be a really good player. What I will say is Roy Keane was probably the best midfield player of his generation and he can certainly spot a good player because he played that position incredible well over many, many years.
Is it easy to forget he is only 24 and still not the finished article yet?
I think Declan is a really good player and I think he will prove it. I don’t think he is going to be finished just now, but he will improve with age, Declan. He is proving that to be the case at the moment.
What do you make over concerns over Newcastle United’s ownership? Are they concerns which managers like yourself take any notice of or not?
I have not got the political mindset to know exactly what it is all about to be honest, I don’t know exactly. We do work under stringent rules here as you can see and I would hope that the people assessing the owners would always get it right. So I have to believe that Newcastle are fine. At the moment, the team is doing very well.
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