David Moyes did not know before Friday’s press conference with the gathered media that this Saturday’s Premier League match will be his 900th league game in football management.
It was a pleasant statistic to hear for the Scottish coach, who has managed well over 1,000 games across 25 years in management, with the West Ham United boss still relishing every single time he sits in the dugout.
Sheffield United will be the opponents for league game number 900 – and Premier League managerial outing number 666 – and Moyes is anticipating a tough test against a Blades side looking to bounce back from a tough result last week against Newcastle.
The boss is looking forward to a return to London Stadium this weekend, and discussed his team’s form, his reflections on recent results and Jarrod Bowen’s start to the season in a wide-ranging conversation on Friday afternoon…
900 league games as a manager
I didn’t know it was my 900th league game as a manager this weekend but I’m very pleased with that.
No manager ever knows how things are going to be, or turn out, and you have to try and hopefully win games, which can keep you in a job or maybe even get you another job! In 1998, when I first took the job at Preston North End, it was a case of trying to have another career in football [after playing] and thankfully it’s gone pretty well so far.
I don’t think there’s any secret to managerial longevity. Roy Hodgson [the Crystal Palace manager] might be able to tell us though because he’s been in the game a long longer than I have. But I’ve been in it a long time and I think you need to have an incredible love for the game and also a desire to keep improving and evolving through the years.
I have to say I’ve really enjoyed my career and I’m really enjoying my time with West Ham United. I want to say a big thanks to all the clubs and the owners who have given me a chance to manage their teams.
An injury update
We’re pretty much fine. We had the midweek game against Lincoln City and we’re making sure that everybody is pretty much recovered from that. Hopefully we will have everyone fit and available for Sheffield United.
Aaron Cresswell is the only one, who has had a little bit of a hamstring injury. He’s not quite ready yet but he’s coming along nicely.
Beware the Blades
Sheffield United had a poor result last week [losing 8-0 to Newcastle United at Bramall Lane], but they’ve done really well to get promoted from the Championship. Their manager Paul Heckingbottom has done an incredible job and I see them as a really tough game. It could be a one-off last week, and we’re the next game against them and that’s going to be tough.
We’ll need to be at our best against them, play well and show our qualities defensively. We will also need to show good qualities on the ball and, if we’re going to win the game, we will need to show we can score goals as well.
You would always expect a team who loses to have a reaction of some sort. I wouldn’t ever see [having to play a team in that situation] as a good thing, but ultimately I wouldn’t want to be on the other side when you’ve lost like that and have to get ready to go again. It’s not an easy thing to do.
I’ve had heavy defeats in my career, like every manager has to. It’s part of it. Paul did a brilliant job in getting them promoted last year. They’ve come into the division and they’re only new to the Premier League and sometimes that’s not easy. Obviously they’ve been in the Premier League in the past but this is the first time for a couple of years.
Liverpool reflections
I thought there were a lot of things that we could take from the game at Anfield. I thought we had some really good moments, obviously not enough good moments to win it, but enough to give us the feeling that we had gone there and tried to make a game of it.
Obviously Liverpool had some bits of quality and we have away a bit of a poor second goal, and the penalty kick I thought we could have done a lot better on as well. But overall, there were lots of good things from the game.
Bowen’s brilliance
Jarrod is beginning to become a player whose consistency and his stability within the team is ever so good.
If you remember when he was at Hull he was scoring ten or twelve goals over two or three years. It wasn’t just one year, he has started to score when he was at Hull, so we were always hoping when we got him that he could continue that.
In the main he has not disappointed us. He goes from strength to strength, continues to improve and hopefully he will keep scoring goals and making goals.
Continuing the fine form
We’ve had a great spirit. You have to remember we started the season after winning a European competition in our last game, so we came into it with a real positivity.
We feel much, much better about ourselves as a football club and as a team. I think from that point of view we were able to take it into the games. But the games we’ve had have been tough opening games.
At the moment we’ve had two Premier League games at home, and they’ve been against Chelsea and Manchester City. From that point of view we’ve had quite a difficult start as far as our games at London Stadium go, but we’re in good form, the players have started well, the new signings have helped, so let’s hope that we can continue.
