West Ham United boss David Moyes spoke to the press at length following his side's 2-0 defeat to Manchester City at the London Stadium.
Erling Haaland got both goals on his Premier League debut to secure an opening weekend win for City against an injury hit Hammers side.
Here is every word David Moyes said on Man City, Haaland, injuries to Craig Dawson and Lukasz Fabianski, Issa Diop's absence and more.
READ MORE: West Ham player ratings: Erling Haaland's Premier League debut double downs injury-hit Hammers
How tough of a test was that for you?
They played really well. They changed from last year, we played against them well here a few weeks ago and gave them a better game, but we found it very hard today. Tactically, they changed, (Kyle) Walker and (Joao) Cancelo played much higher, either side of Rodri, played with no full-backs. We found it hard to outnumber them in the middle of the pitch and when they got it wide, we found it difficult to cope when they got it wide. Today, tactically, they were much better. We hadn’t prepped for that because we hadn’t really seen it but today, it was really difficult tactiaclly to deal with.
Do you think you could have stamped down the 82% possession Manchester City had in the first half?
I would’ve loved to have done. Have you got an idea?
Maybe pressing higher?
Do you think we don’t work on that? Pressing high up? We tried to, but we couldn’t get near to them today. I hope the next time we play them, we might be able to offer something better.
Did you think that Manchester City were so different with Erling Haaland that affected your preparation?
No, I didn’t say they were different because of Haaland, I said they were different because of the way they played both of their full-backs today. Both of their full-backs played either side of Rodri, which caused us a bigger problem. They nearly outnumbered us in midfield, we couldn’t get on the ball, and then when we bought our players in to try to cope with them, then they got the ball out to (Phil) Foden or (Jack) Grealish and got some width. That’s how I saw it.
Does it mean that any time you have previously prepared for Manchester City, it didn’t really count today?
Over the years, they have always bought one full-back in, it was (Oleksandr) Zinchenko last year quite often but the two of them played in there today and it made it really difficult to outnumber them. Tactically, they were good. But, I’ve got to say from our point of view, we didn’t do very well, we didn’t get much possession, we were resilient enough to keep at it. We go 1-0 down to a penalty kick, we hung in, stuck at it against a team which completely outplayed us. The players have to take something from it. I was told they had two shots on target, I might be wrong on that. There were bits of it where we stuck at it and we tried. We tried to alter it at half-time a little bit to see if we could get some more possession back off them, we tried that, and it got a little bit better to be fair for a little while until they got a second goal. Today, the talk should be about Man City, they played very well. We didn’t’ compete as well as we competed against them last year, but hopefully, we can do a bit better in the next weeks and months to come.
What did you make of Erling Haaland and how different was it to play against him?
The difference with today is that if you looked at the Charity Shield game, (Kevin) De Bruyne made a couple of simple passes and tried to play through, exactly what they done for their opening goal and it was either offside or it didn’t quite make it. It got a very similar run and it is something which all of the teams are going to be really aware of those runs in behind, it gives them something really different. We all look at De Bruyne’s ability to pass it, but I think if you look closer at it, I don’t think the pass should have got through in the first place. I think the pass should have probably been cut out, but that’s come from our side and you will talk about the goals but I think we could have probably cut that pass out.
Having to play Ben Johnson at centre-back?
Difficult when you start the first game against the best team. We’ve been chasing a centre half for two years, he then injures himself against Rangers, so we have to go with that. Daws has got a bit of a thigh strain, we’ve not got Angelo Ogbonna ready to get back yet from his cruciate yet, we were really, really short of defensive options. We knew this for the week and we were working really hard to work out how best we could play against Man City with what we’ve got. It wasn’t a great result and it wasn’t a great performance but the players stuck at it and they didn’t give in, so I’ll give them a bit of credit for that.
What is Lukasz Fabianski’s injury?
He got a knock onto his hip, which he thinks has numbed his leg completely, so the knock makes me feel not so bad. Hopefully, it won’t be anything serious but he’s limping badly at the moment. Hopefully, it’s not maybe as bad as we felt, he had no feeling in his leg after getting the knock.
Is Issa Diop also injured?
No, Issa Diop is not injured at the minute. Issa Diop didn’t put himself forward to play in the last couple of games and we will see what happens with that in the next couple of weeks.
Do you expect him to leave the club?
I don’t know.
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