Moyes updates progress with friendlies planned

David Moyes is more than satisfied with the way things are going at Rush Green as the squad prepare for their first match under Project Restart.

The manager is doing everything in his power – in difficult circumstances – to ensure- the lads are as ready as it’s possible to be for a tough a start  against Wolves.

That will be between the 19th and 21st of June in circumstances which are going to take one hell of getting used to as has clearly been the case at Rush Green over the last couple of weeks.

However, Wolves will be bang up for a game which they will want to use to improve their  Europa Cup hopes. The Hammers have burning issues at the other end of the table – it will be a cracker and will be broadcast across the world.

Moyes is seeing far more normality in the training programme and is planning to get some friendlies underway as we build towards peak fitness.

He told https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/june/03-june/david-moyes-training-new-normal-playing-warm-matches-and-focusing : “A lot of things regarding training are very similar to normal at the moment, because we’re back to contact on the pitch.

“But, off the pitch is completely different because obviously we’re not using the facilities, we’re outdoors, we’re social distancing from players and staff and we’re not in close contact, so we’re making it work.

“Most of it we’re finding OK, but what was difficult was the early part when we were training in ones and twos and fours.

“Now, we’re beginning to get more back to normal, everyone has been fitting in with it and we’re doing well.”

Moyes revealed his squad will play friendly matches against available and suitable local opposition to help build fitness and hone match sharpness.

Of course, we will be playing some friendlies,” he continued. “We’ll do everything we can to prepare for the return of the Premier League.

“If you consider this a sort of pre-season period, most teams would have had a few friendlies under their belts and one thing all the clubs are not going to get is a lot of game practice, so I think getting the opportunity to do that means we can play a couple of games behind closed doors.

“All these things are subject to the protocols at the moment. We will need to make sure we have everything right before we arrange the games, let alone play the games.

“Of course, we’re not going to ask other teams to travel a long distance and we don’t intend to travel a long distance as we are all following the guidelines while we’re in a position where we don’t want anything to go wrong in the lead up to the restart of the Premier League.”

 

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon