David Moyes knows his West Ham United side will need to show their very best to come away with three points from Sunday’s test against Manchester United.
The Hammers face a sharp turnaround in Premier League action, having fought back to secure a share of the spoils against AFC Bournemouth on Thursday, with a trip to Old Trafford to face the Red Devils.
Moyes knows first-hand the pressures that come with managing Manchester United and showed his respect for the work Erik ten Hag is doing at the club, but knows his Hammers have the quality to secure a first away league win against Sunday’s opponents since 2007.
The West Ham manager also considered the January transfer window, his thoughts on Kalvin Phillips’ debut for the Club and much more in his pre-match press conference on Friday…
Team news
It’s a really quick turnaround from Thursday’s game. We’re getting ourselves back together quickly and hopefully everyone will come through okay.
There’s no more update in terms of injuries. We’re still dealing with the lads who are injured. We’ve not had any more from the medical team to suggest that [Lucas Paquetá] is going to be back. He’s been out for a few weeks and I don’t think he’ll be back for this weekend.
Michail Antonio is coming on a bit more. He’s running on the grass now. He’s not worked with or trained with the team but he’s training outside. I couldn’t give a projected return date at this moment though.
January deals
We wanted to strengthen in January. I think if you asked most managers then they would say something similar. We worked really hard to bring in an attacking player as well but we couldn’t quite get there. There weren’t as many transfers in this window, certainly big transfers, as there have been in the past.
We knew Kalvin Phillips would need a little bit of time. He got the best part of 70 minutes against Bournemouth and that will help him along. He’s a top player, an established England international, and there are no question marks about him as a player. It’s just a case of him needing a bit of game time and getting those opportunities to get back to his levels.
A trip to Old Trafford
We played very well against Manchester United when we played them at London Stadium. We’re now going to Old Trafford, which has always been a notoriously hard place to get results. We’ll go there and try to put on a good performance.
We’ve shown good league form, on the whole, and we have to try and keep it up. We’ve lost a couple of players in recent weeks through the Africa Cup of Nations, injuries and suspension, but we have to try and make sure we keep with it.
Erik ten Hag is in a privileged position to be manager of Manchester United. I think he understands and respects that. I think he is trying to enforce how he wants the team to play and work, and you have to give him credit for that. When you’re in that job, you are under a lot of pressure. You are expected to win and you are expected to perform well. He understands that.
I think he’s trying to get himself this period and then start building again, and they certainly picked up a good result against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Thursday.
Goalscoring efforts
We’ve now got Mohammed Kudus back, and he was crucial to our goal against Bournemouth. We’ve not had that in recent games. We’re also without Lucas Paquetá and Michail Antonio at the moment so, in terms of goalscoring, there is probably mitigating circumstances around why we’re probably not getting as many goals.
Sometimes, you have to make sure you don’t lose matches. In some of our recent games, I don’t think we’ve necessarily played particularly well, but the bit for me is we’ve not been conceding a lot of goals. We’ve just not been taking some of the chances we’ve been getting.
We can play better, we know that, and the main thing I’m looking at is getting us playing better. I gauge my team by our performances and that’s where I want to improve. In the main though, if my team is picking up points when we’re not doing as well then I can see that as a positive.
Staying ahead
I think we’ve been one of the league’s leading teams in terms of being in front at half-time. The way we play, in the main, has been that we’ve been in front in most games. Us going a goal behind has not been the norm this season.
We gave Bournemouth a bit of a leg up because of a poor mistake and then we had to chase the game. We didn’t play so well, but we got back into the game, and we got a point from it when we were behind.
