David Moyes has been speaking to the media ahead of West Ham United’s Premier League fixture with Brentford on Sunday afternoon.
The Irons head to west London hoping to extend a winning run to two games following triumphs over Manchester United and AZ Alkmaar at London Stadium.
Making the short trip to Brentford, West Ham seek their first win over the Bees in the Premier League - one that would mathematically secure the Club’s Premier League status regardless of results elsewhere across the weekend’s matches.
And, following Friday’s training session, Moyes spoke about the win over AZ Alkmaar, the quality of Brentford and Thomas Frank and why there is a strong belief around Rush Green that the Hammers can finish the season strongly in both domestic and European competition.
It’s the best we have felt this season because we had a really good win against Manchester United at the weekend as well.
That got us a vital three points as far as our Premier League position is. And then you have the semi-final on the Conference League midweek and to get a lead is important. So, we have had a good couple of days, and we are buoyed by it. And hopefully, we can keep it going.
I think the players' character has been really impressive.
We have had it here in abundance in the last year or two. We struggled with some performances at different times this season, but I have always felt that the players have had the character to get us into a good position and do well.
We would like our league position to be a lot stronger than it is. But I can’t fault them and how they have gone about things. And getting to another European semi-final is another positive for us.
I don’t think it is that difficult to focus on Brentford because we all know the importance of it.
I think you can see by the way the players performed against Manchester United and how we have tried to perform in recent games. And we have worked really hard to make sure we have got to the points required. Yes, we are still short of at least one more win, so we have to try and get that.
I think the schedule has a possibility of affecting the eleven we start against Brentford.
The big thing is that I need to see which players are fit and available after having to play Thursday-Sunday, as we have had it so many times this season. And we had it this time last season as well and we thought it had an effect on us. So, we have to consider all of that. But the most important thing is that we stay in the Premier League and if we can reach a cup final as well then that will be great.
Thomas Frank has done a brilliant job.
I don’t think just this year, but he has been continually climbing and improving the team and the club. I think he has done a brilliant job; I really do. Brentford are a club with a model which is getting used - not unlike AZ in different ways - but I think they have done a really good job.
People see them as an established Premier League club who are more than capable of beating the top teams and challenging them. And they have been in a healthy position in the Premier League all season.
You have to get the points yourself [to stay in the Premier League].
But thankfully we had a really good result against Manchester United, which has given us a little bit of breathing space, but we are in need of a couple more points to secure our safety.
Planning for next season has been put on the back burner really.
For the most part the planning has been make sure we are a Premier League club, because everything would change if we weren’t. And it would be the case for any team in that position. So, a lot of the planning will be starting and going into place once we have kept our Premier League place.
We are obviously watching a lot of players and doing a lot of scouting and we are looking at what we want to do but, in truth, the only focus has been the games and staying in the Premier League.
I would hope that we won’t need to do as much work as we did last summer.
And we brought in a big number of players, nine in total, which is probably more than you would want to bring in. So, I see more tinkering, little bits and pieces being done here and there. I don’t see huge amounts of stuff getting done at the moment and a change here and there but not loads of work.
