David Moyes

Video: David Moyes FA Cup pre-match presser

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West Ham  manager David Moyes gave his virtual press conference on Friday ahead of West Ham’s FA Cup fixture with Doncaster Rovers:

On Robert Snodgrass and a potential points deduction:

I know nothing about that. I have no idea if what you said has any element of truth to it, I don’t know where you have got that from.

I can’t add anything to what I said the other night, but I am really surprised by that [a potential points deduction]. There’s no truth in it. I can’t add anything.

West Ham’s form and club happiness

It’s always much better when you’re working with players who are winning, It’s much more enjoyable for the manager it gives you something that you feel good about as well. The players here have really been exceptional as well since I have come back, I have really enjoyed it, the staff at the club, working with the people here but the players have been great and hopefully, it continues.

We can’t take it for granted, we want to keep winning, we want to keep this good feeling going, we want to keep the momentum going so hopefully the players can do that.

Transfer window progress

Well, I hope the higher up the league we go that it makes us a more attractive club for players to come to. West Ham is an attractive club and I believe it can become better in the future as well and I hope that is the case.

I have no big news on transfers at the moment, nothing has really changed from what I said [last week] because not only are we in a difficult transfer window we are in a really busy time, we have got game after game so it is not as if you’re putting as much time and effort into the transfers because obviously, we are concentrating every week on preparing the team, recovering or getting ready for another game.

Doncaster Rover in the FA Cup

I want to win the FA Cup if I can, I really do. I want to be strong in the cup competitions but I also have to be mindful of the amount of games that we are going to be playing and I think it is really beginning to take its toll on so many clubs. We have been good with injuries and I want to keep it that way.

Obviously, we have had a couple of injuries like everybody else but we have a squad of players and I will use the squad of players but my intention is to be as strong as I feel I can be for this game.

European Super Legaue

I have not read enough about it to understand it, so I am not really capable of giving you an opinion on it but all I can say is I have been really impressed with the Champions League over recent years, and over the years it has been a really good tournament. It is something that we see the top teams in Europe playing in and I don’t really know any more than that, but I have been really happy with the Champions League to be honest, and the Europa League has turned into a success as the years have gone on.

On going from a relegation battle to a European battle

It has not really exceeded my expectations of where I hoped to get to, maybe the speed that we have got there because this time last year we were fighting really hard to avoid relegation, we were just all about to go into lockdown and I thought that the games we had when I came in looked really hard when. So, I think the big thing was trying to get the boys onside, to make sure we were all going in the right direction, could we avoid relegation? We got there and we have done brilliantly well after lockdown.

I am not saying I am surprised but I am saying I am pleased with how quickly we have done it and got to this point. Some things like a couple of the signings have made a difference, bringing in Tomas Soucek, Jarrod Bowen, people like that really helped.

I think we have seen a massive improvement in Declan Rice as we have gone on, the form of Angello Ogbonna, we saw Micky Antonio go from a winger into a centre-forward, we have seen Aaron Cresswell’s form lift up to where he is being talked about getting into the England squad. So, I think you have to say the improvement in the players individually has been fantastic and they deserve all the credit for how they have done that.

FA Cup ambitions

Well first of all we had to win the first game to get into this round, and now we have to beat Doncaster before we can get any further. The words are easy to say ‘I’d love to win the FA Cup’ but the journey you have to go on to get there is normally a long one and quite a difficult one, it is never easy.

And also you are mindful of your players, as I said the other day we are in a period similar to the Christmas period. The whole of January is similar to our Christmas and New year period so it will be impossible for all of the clubs to play all of their players in all of the games.

Everybody will say ‘Why didn’t you put out a stronger team in the cup?’ to all the managers. But it is such a busy period and not only that, behind the scenes, not just for footballers, but for everybody in any walk of life there is covid out there as well which is having implications in different clubs.

We are mindful of all those things and hopefully we can get to the Cup Final but obviously, the next job is to try and beat Doncaster.

We all watched the cup games a couple of weeks ago and saw some incredible games, including our vs Stockport, so I don’t think there is any game in the FA Cup in which you can turn up and say ‘ we’re going to win this and roll them over’ because for some reason it inspires the underdog, whether it also the media and the hype and the pressure that gets put on the bigger clubs, I think all those things play a part. But we have been really professional, we have gone about our jobs in the right manner and we will try and do that again.

All the players who are in our squad have had an impact for us, coming off the bench they have been really important for us so I hope some of those players will show us exactly what they can do yet again. We will go out and try and beat Doncaster but obviously, it is a big day for them.

Top four trophy

I think it would be for West Ham if you think where we have come from. It’s a long way off but why should we not in our own way try and be ambitious, I don’t want to be thinking about being around the bottom I want to think about being near the top.

I don’t think we can be in those positions but I am going to push the players as much as we can to keep up with the Joneses and see if we can be around the top.

Preparation for Doncaster

Since the draw was made we have watched Doncaster three times live and we have scouts to watch them. We will try and prepare for the game in the exact way we would prepare for a Premier League game. It is a quick turnaround.

With respect, not all our players will know all of the Doncaster players so we have to make them aware of what they have got, of how they play and the big thing with playing Doncaster at the moment is they are playing really well in the league. They have good momentum, they have a manager who has got good experience with Premier League players, so we know we are in for a really tough day.

Any team that has got momentum and is playing well in any league will always be difficult opposition. We saw that in Stockport the other day, there is always something that is making them do well in their division, and I don’t think that matters whether it is in the Premier League or one of the lower leagues.

We will give Doncaster the same respect as we would give to any Premier League team.

Fifth Round incentive

I want our players to be playing against the best teams in the league on a regular basis, and competing against the best teams in the league regularly, because if you’re doing that it tends to mean you are involved in quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals.

Because if you are doing that then you are involved in big league games and that is what we want to do at West Ham. We want to stop our big games being relegation battles, we don’t want that I want a different mentality, so let’s hope we can do that.

But first things first we have to look after Doncaster.

Cup opportunities for squad players

Every club will make their own decisions, the difference [this year] is the amount of games we have got.

We have got Crystal Palace on Tuesday night and Crystal Palace will not play tomorrow. We have just had two big wins against Burnley and West Brom. So if you look at the bigger picture of where the players are and what we are trying to do then it becomes difficult, If you look at it as a one-off then you can say ‘why did you not play all your players’ then that is an easy thing to say, but it is only when you start to look at the bigger situation that you start to realise that we are having to use players, we are having to keep people involved and ideally we would like to use a lot of young players if we could, but unfortunately so many of the young players have either had not as much training as they normally do, or they have not been in the bubble or they have been in bouts of isolation, which has made it more difficult to involve them which I think is not just our club I think it is disappointing for a lot of young players at clubs everywhere..

Mipo Odubeko

He had a positive test, but the difference is he has come back and now had a negative test. So we are a little bit in the dark and we are waiting on the Doctor to tell us what is correct but he has missed the best part of a week’s training so that is where we are at with Mipo at the moment.

On Antonio

We have to think about what we are going to do but there is also a part of Micky Antonio that needs a rhythm if you look at his best form. Sometimes he has looked a little rusty and then he gets into full flow so we want to keep Micky going, we started with 20 minutes at Southampton, then we gave him 30 minutes, and then we gave him 90 which was a bit longer than maybe we would want in some games.

But I do think that is the way to get Micky back up to full fitness. Whatever he has been doing he is doing a great job for us because he has come up with two massively important goals in two big games for us.

Press conference transcript credit:  Tom Clark/Football.London

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I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk. A Blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball,

I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh.

Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons!

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