David Moyes cannot wait for West Ham United’s European campaign – their third in a row – to get underway.
Never before in the Club’s long and storied history have they competed on the continental stage three years in succession, but lifting the UEFA Europa Conference League trophy in June gave them the ticket to this season’s Europa League group stages.
There, Serbian SuperLiga runners-up FK TSC Bačka Topola provide the first test at London Stadium on Thursday night and it is one the boss is relishing.
As he faced the assembled media in his pre-match press conference, the manager covered topics ranging from the many benefits of European competition, the strength of his squad and the challenge of facing an opponent they have never before played.
The Europa League gets stronger every year
I think the European competitions have got tougher. So many of the teams who were regular Champions League teams have found themselves in the Europa League, and quite a lot who were in the Europa League have found themselves in the Conference League.
European football is really, really strong – obviously the Champions League is always the one you want to be recognised for, but I think it’s great that we’ve got the Europa League. We’re thrilled that we’re in it again, two years out of three, and I do believe that the competition has got tougher from when we were in it two years ago.
To have Liverpool and Brighton from the Premier League – you can see the form that Brighton are in and the history that Liverpool have in European football – and that’s just talking about the British team, never mind those from other countries.
You’ve also got to remember that we’re waiting on whoever finishes third in their Champions League group to drop back into this competition too. So to talk about who could be favourites at this stage is not really worthwhile.
Getting the balance right
The Premier League will always be the most important thing, to try and make sure you’re always a Premier League club, because that’s where most of the money comes from, but Europe has been so good to us.
If I was putting it in financial terms, Europe is the most Important competition after the Premier League.
From that point of view we want to target both, so the balance of being a club who plays on a Thursday and Sunday is never easy. But over the last two seasons we’ve done it quite well with a final and a semi-final the year before that.
We’ll try to get the balance right, the next game is always the most important one in my eyes. You’re always trying to win the next game and the next game is on Thursday night.
We’re going to try to go for it and compete again.
Competition for places will help our campaign
Let’s not forget what Declan [Rice] gave us last year in winning a final. He was part of team which was hugely successful and he was captain of the team and scored some amazing goals in Europe.
But we’ve tried to build a stronger all-round group. I think the competition for places is good and we want to keep that strong. The players are in a confident frame of mind, which comes from playing well and victories.
We’re trying to have more of the ball in games and while we can, we’re going to make sure we’re really hard to beat and continue to try to win games by hook or by crook, however that happens.
European glory was a fantastic feeling
I’ve got to say there’s an inner glow about me because getting that victory meant so much. I’m pleased to carry that with me now.
I hope I can do it again, because that magic feeling when it happened, the aftermath, what it meant to so many people in the East End of London – it was a great moment.
To be fortunate enough to win a European trophy is not something that happens every day.
Preparing for the challenge of FK TSC Bačka Topola
It is a bit harder to get footage of them and get the levels of games you’d compare, but they are a side who have had a very good record.
They’ve done well at the start of this season too and we’ll get as much information as we can and give that to the players.
It’s not an easy thing to do, getting all the information on a team from Serbia, but it’s our job to do so and we’re looking forward to playing them and looking forward to going there [in November] as well.
It’s a compliment to them that they’ve got themselves into this situation [and into the group stage of the Europa League].
They played Braga in the Champions League qualifier last month and we’ve watched both games of that, which gives us a better idea of the levels of what we’re up against.
To be in the position they’re in [competing against Serbia’s traditional giants Crvena zvezda and Partizan] is very good.
James Ward-Prowse has hit the ground running
He added things to Southampton which were terrific, whether that was scoring goals or making goals. I hoped that if we could transfer that from there to us, then it would give us some options as well.
He can play several different roles in midfield for us and I think he’s been a good, steady signing for us so far. Getting his goals and assists [has been great], and we’ve always thought we’ve been a side who have not been bad at set pieces, so if we could get a really top, top deliverer then it would make us even more potent.
He’s added a couple of open play goals at the moment too, so I have to say it’s been a great start to his West Ham career and I hope we can continue the levels that he’s at.
