West Ham United manager David Moyes has been speaking to the media ahead of our trip to Stamford Bridge this Saturday.
The Hammers head to Chelsea for another London Derby having battled to a 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur in midweek thanks to a second-half strike from Tomáš Souček.
Saturday’s fixture starts a busy period for the Irons, who face FCSB in the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage, before hosting Newcastle United at the London Stadium the follow weekend.
Moyes spoke about unusually playing football on a Saturday and his thoughts on a trip to Stamford Bridge. He also talked about the transfer window closing and how the Hammers can build on the performance against Spurs.
I thought the second half against Tottenham showed a lot of good signs.
We could sense we were getting closer to the levels we’ve been at. We’ve got to show we can do it for more than 45 minutes. We’ve got to try and do it now for much longer. Those levels are what we want to reach.
It feels very strange to play on a Saturday.
It's incredible. I think today is Saturday and we’re doing the press conference because we have had a year of Sunday football. Let’s be fair it is great we are playing a Saturday. I think it is the tradition in this country. It has always be a football day, certainly in the generation I have been brought up in, it has been a Saturday. I think when you are given Sunday – Wednesday – Saturday it is slightly different.
Chelsea are always a very big opponent for whoever plays them.
They have some really fantastic players and they’re trying to put together a new team just now, and maybe even a new club in fact, if you look at the changes they’ve made over the last year or two. Sometimes changes can take a bit of time. We have had some good games at home against them, some good results. I think we lost in the 93rd minute against them at Stamford Bridge last year. It is telling us we are getting closer. Over recent years, Chelsea have been world champions, European champions. They have always been a good team, Chelsea.
We’ve tried to bring in players who can really try and keep us up near the top end.
That’s the plan. We have to do that. I think the top clubs have recruited well also. If you’re talking about the real top clubs, and you look at Erling Haaland and Darwin Nunez, and what you have to pay to get the real top players. We’re trying to keep up with them, that’s the job, and hopefully we can get the players to show just how good they are.
It was always going to be a year where we had to bring in seven or eight more players.
We needed it. If we didn’t get it in, we wouldn’t have had enough. We were short and I told everybody the arithmetic. I think it’s really important to now have the players help integrate them. Mark Noble used to be really good at helping settle the new signings. We’ve also got a really good Player Care team here who look after them, make sure that we get them housed well and their families are all looked after.
I think, on the football side of it, you want to try and get as many training sessions in with them as you can. You want to see their abilities and the other players to see how they play and where they play. I think that’s the bit that takes time and ideally you would have the players in pre-season. You can then get a couple of pre-season games; you can see them play for you and they get a chance to see what the teammates are like.
When you’re bringing them in late, now you’re actually having to play them in games of huge value, and while it’s great for the public, as a manager you’re looking for a feel of what you’re going to get.
