David Moyes admitted his West Ham United team are not at their best at present, but vowed that he, his staff and players would not allow recent performances and results to derail what could still be a successful 2023/24 season.
The Hammers’ winless run stretched to six Premier League matches and eight games in all competitions with a 2-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday, and the result was compounded by the sending-off of midfielder Kalvin Phillips in the second half.
The Reds ended their own recent top-flight travails with a goal in each half from Taiwo Awoniyi and Callum Hudson-Odoi, and Moyes observed that the home side played with an urgency and desire that came with their own precarious position in the table.
A third defeat in a row will naturally cause frustration and disappointment, but the manager says he cannot afford to let negative emotions distract him from his work to put the Irons back on the winning track.
With Michail Antonio returning after three months out injured at the City Ground and Lucas Paquetá also approaching his own comeback, a top-half Premier League position to fight for, and a UEFA Europa League round of 16 tie to plan for, there are reasons to be optimistic, even if it did not feel that way at the final whistle in the East Midlands...
At the moment, that’s the way it feels like, that we’re doing everything to try and get things right and make things right [but it’s not happening at the moment].
We’re obviously lacking a bit of balance in the team, but even if we were playing really well, coming to Nottingham Forest and losing isn’t a sin.
They’re fighting for their lives against relegation and they’re the team who are under pressure, not us, and they played today like a team who knew that they needed the points to avoid relegation, and it wasn’t too long ago that we were the team who were doing that.
Look I was disappointed [with their first goal].
The game just went a bit scruffy. Vladi went off with a knock and we just maybe hadn’t quite recovered and we were just trying to fill in for him and we gave it away.
It ended up being too easy as they passed the ball into the box and we got turned and it was just too easy.
It was a tight, close Premier League game between two teams. ‘Phonse made a couple of really good saves for us, we had a couple of good chances when we went through and didn’t finish them off, so it was a tight-ish game and there wasn’t much in the game at all.
It has started difficult for Kalvin [at West Ham] and he played well today. His performance was good.
When you push somebody, you’ve always got a chance [of being booked] so I don’t know. I want to protect him, and I will do. We could have kicked it against him (Nicolás Domínguez) and got their boy booked. Kalvin was trying to get their boy away from the ball, but both of them suffered because of it. Kalvin pushed him, but he wanted to play quick and get on with the game.
The second one, I’ve not seen it but I’m hearing and they’re telling me it was really tight and two boots coming together and not much in it. Their player makes a bit of a meal of it and makes the referee’s decision up.
It felt that the crowd played a huge part in a lot of the refereeing decisions today. They got right behind their team just because Nottingham Forest being in a relegation-threatened position, they know they have to support their team and I think they had an affect on the referee and quite a few decisions as well.
We’ve had a bad six to eight weeks, no doubt about that.
But, look, I said in another interview that it wasn’t too long ago that Newcastle were going through a really difficult period with injuries, Manchester United were going through a period, Manchester City before they went to the Club World Cup went through a difficult period and lost quite a few games, and Arsenal lost quite a few games over Christmas time, so it does happen, and we’re no different from anybody else.
In fact, we’re lesser than those other sides I’m talking about in many ways and we lost a few players – Jarrod was injured, Micky was injured, Paquetá, Mo – so we’ve had our share as well.
We have to find a way of getting out of it and I’m sure we will.
I think Mick gives us a focal point and people like to see Mick in the team lineup and like to see him there because he’s always a worry to the opposition.
I was pleased to get him out there and we did well to get the best part of 70 minutes from him and that will help him along the way and get him back.
