David Moyes has been speaking to the media on Friday afternoon ahead of West Ham United’s Emirates FA Cup third-round tie with Brentford.
The Hammers head to west London on Saturday looking for quick revenge, having fallen to a 2-0 Premier League defeat by the Bees last Friday at London Stadium.
West Ham’s first FA Cup clash against Brentford since 1927 will hopefully be the start of a long run to Wembley. The Irons are looking for their first triumph in the competition since 1980 when John Lyall’s outfit memorably defeated Arsenal 1-0 thanks to a Sir Trevor Brooking header.
Moyes spoke about facing Brentford twice in eight days, his FA Cup hopes, and paid tribute to Gianluca Vialli following the former Chelsea and Italy striker's sad passing at the age of 58.
I remember Gianluca Vialli really well as a player [with Italy, Sampdoria, Juventus and Chelsea].
We had a game against him [against Watford when Vialli was Hornets manager in 2002] when I was manager of Preston North End as well - it is just really sad news.
We've had a loss here at West Ham this week with David Gold passing. Gianluca was a really young man, so I feel for his family.
We were very aware that David Gold was unwell, but I think when these things happen, it really hits you hard.
He was really supportive, here at Rush Green. He was always bobbing in and out. He was someone whom I liked a lot. He was an honest man, spoke well, and was really supportive when required.
But, also, he was straightforward. So, someone we really liked, and someone will miss because he would come to see the players and have lunch with us.
We are really disappointed that he's died. But we have to move on; he'd want West Ham to keep going well.
Winning any football match is really important.
We had a great thrill this year about winning our games in Europe and topping the group as we did last year. Last season, we had a really good run in the League Cup, where we beat both Manchester City and Manchester United. So I think that if you can get a run in any cup competition, I think it's a good sign. It's really important to do it.
But I think ask the majority of the managers and their bread and butter is the Premier League. It’s the most important thing. But winning a cup and getting a run for the supporters is equally as important. You're trying to give them good games and days they remember. And I'd love to be able to do that.
Brentford have been improving over the last two or three years.
They have been making small steps. And I think they've done a really good job. The manager has done a very good job. They've got a good squad of players. So, they've got lots of players they can choose from.
So, it's a tough game. We had a tough game last week. I don't know if we quite deserved the result we got against them last week, but they put one over us. So, we've got to try and go there and do the same to them.
We still might be active in the transfer market this January.
We might try and do some business if we can. But ultimately the club spent a lot of money in the summer and we brought in a lot of players. And ideally, we're not trying to bring in so many players.
We brought in a lot in this summer, and we're still trying to integrate them and get used to the Premier League. But we may need to depending on how we think the situation is.
I think always at these times, the questions in all the press conferences to the managers will be very similar - How much would you want to win a cup? What's important?
And we all say the same because we all want to be successful, we do want to win the cups. We want to get through. But ultimately, by the end, it's only one team who can do it. So that's what makes it hard because we all would really want to do it. And I think there's not one manager out there who wouldn't be trying to win the cup.
We've been a little bit slack in some things we're doing, which has disappointed me.
But I think there bits of our play have been very good. But we've not been able to convert [chances in front of goal]. And sometimes you need things to go your way, sometimes you need somebody to score a screamer, which changes things now and again. Whereas last year, we maybe nicked a goal from a set piece, we're not been doing that as often.
At the moment, we've conceded a couple of really sloppy goals from my point of view, which is not like us. I need to try and eradicate that at the moment as well.
