David Moyes

Moyes: Southampton, April schedule and the competitive Premier League

David Moyes has been speaking to the media ahead of West Ham United’s Premier League fixture with Southampton on Sunday.

The Hammers will be looking to extend an unbeaten run on home turf to six matches and will be buoyed by recent run of form that has seen wins over AEK Larnaca and draws against Chelsea and Aston Villa in east London.

Still, Moyes' outfit will be wary of the task ahead with Sunday's opponents looking rejuvenated under Rubén Sellés in recent weeks.

Moyes spoke about Southampton, James Ward-Prowse and also the tightness of the relegation battle - as the Hammers seek to make it five home wins from their last six meetings against the Saints.

I see the players around the club in a good mood and in good spirits, so partly that is to do with how positive our results in Europe have been.
David Moyes

Southampton is really important.

We played Everton and Nottingham Forest not too long ago and we have had Aston Villa since then and it is very similar to those games. Every game is very important and picking up three points would be great if we could, but all the games in the Premier League are so so tough.

 

I've not worked it out [how many points we will need to stay up].
Nine or ten teams are involved at the bottom end of the table and we are one of them. We hoped that we wouldn’t be but we were. And we have to find a way to make sure we are safe come the end of the season and I'm sure we will be.

 

We have got a lot of home games coming up in the next month.

We've got nine games in April and a lot of them at home, so it'll take a lot from the players, and anything the supporters can give will certainly add to the performance and the effort the players put in. I think they're ready, we're in a good frame of mind and will pick up the points we need to not be at the bottom end of the league.

 

Our focus is that we concentrate on the game and we do everything we can to win the game.

How we do that, it does not matter. We have got to get those wins under our belt to get us away [from the bottom of the table]. We are into a really important part of the season. Lots of games, and a difficult set of fixtures because we have three games in six days but we have to take that and get everything we can from them.

Moyes Southampton

I know James Ward-Prowse is a good footballer

But we will try to prepare our team to cause Southampton problems and to try and put them under pressure. He is an incredibly good set-piece taker and by all accounts a really good lad…but obviously I am more interested in how we perform.

 

I think our results in Europe have been really, really good.

We have gone ten unbeaten and that has kept us going a little bit and kept a lot more belief. We are certainly not acting behind the scenes as if we are a team in the wrong part of the league. I see the players around the Club in a good mood and in good spirits, so partly that is to do with how positive our results in Europe have been.

 

I think quite often teams have broken away by this point and we have not had as many teams fighting it out.

But there is very little difference between a lot of teams. Of course, we have got two or three outstanding teams at the top of the league. But outside of that, there is not a lot of difference between the teams. And getting the points and getting some good early wins at the start of the season can make it feel better and we are now paying the price and have to play catch-up a bit.

 

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