David Moyes is looking forward to a return to home soil when West Ham United welcome Nottingham Forest to London Stadium on Saturday.
The Irons will play only their third home match of 2023 this weekend when Steve Cooper’s side visit east London. The Hammers claimed a battling 1-1 draw at home to Chelsea in their previous match at London Stadium, and defeated Everton 2-0 in the first home match of the year.
The manager is eager to continue picking up points at home against a Forest team that sit 13th in the Premier League, and knows how important the incredible home support of the Claret and Blue army will be during Saturday’s match.
Talking during his pre-match press conference on Friday, Moyes also offered his first reaction to the UEFA Europa Conference League Round of 16 draw, which will see the Hammers take on Cypriot side AEK Larnaca across two legs in March.
The boss also discussed preparations for Saturday’s fixture, and his memories of the late, great Bobby Moore OBE on the 30th anniversary of his sad passing…
I think when you get to the late stages of any cup competition it is always going to be difficult.
The most important thing is that we won the group – we won all the games in the group – which gave us the chance of being at home in the second leg, but hopefully, that will go to our advantage.
It is a fair trip to Cyprus but one we are looking forward to. We are thrilled to be in the competition, and we will do our best to stay in it as long as we can.
I think you have to remember how successful the players have been over the last couple of years.
Semi-final of European football, finishing sixth, last year finishing seventh. I have got to be honest and say we have done pretty well in the games this year. We have played well, and we have won the group, which is never easy to do.
The Premier League will always be hugely important.
The bread and butter is the Premier League but being in Europe is a great thrill. It is great for the supporters. We have had incredible crowds at London Stadium for the games, and we have taken huge away support when where we have gone. And I am sure they will be a lot looking forward to going to Cyprus for a few days as well.
[Forest] is a really big game.
There is still a lot to play but they are getting bigger because there are not as many to play as there were at the start. We played Forest in the first away game of the season, and it was a tight game, and things on the day just did not go for us. We've got to hope that we can turn that around and pick up these three points.
I’m not looking too far ahead. I’m looking at the next game, which is Nottingham Forest, and we have to try and get the win against them.
It’s hugely key that we try and win that game. Our home form in the last two games has seen us draw with Chelsea and beat Everton, and the other six have been away from home, so hopefully we can keep a good vibe going at home.
I was watching back the clips from the away game against Forest.
I watched back and Kurt Zouma’s header was kicked off the line on 82 minutes. And we miss a penalty kick in that game as well. Things like that certainly do show that sometimes you need a little bit of good fortune and, on that day, we didn’t get it. But we’re at it now and we’re getting a little bit better. Our mentality is better too and hopefully we can pick up more wins.
The players are fully committed and totally focused on the job.
They are really good professionals, and they are the ones who cross the white line, and they have to show it now in the game. So, we're looking forward to getting underway and seeing what we can produce.
The first thing we want to make sure of is that we climb the table as quickly as we can.
We also want to keep the run in Europe going. We're going to try and do that. We're trying to keep a run going in the FA Cup as well. We're going to try and do that as well. We're going to have to keep improving. So, let's hope we can do that.
I think, over the years I've had in the Premier League, I've seen unbelievable teams.
Sir Alex Ferguson's team at Manchester United and going to try and win at Arsenal when they had a great team under Arsene Wenger and the Manchester City teams that have been built over the years.
I think it's very difficult [to say this season is the toughest]. But what I would say is there's less disparity between probably 12, 13 or 14 clubs. There is very little between it. We've been competing at the top end of the league.
This year, we’re seeing really good Fulham, Brentford and Brighton teams. Certainly, Newcastle United as well. So, it might mean that we're going to have a situation where it could be that we see it chopping and changing [between teams]. It has always been difficult to break into the top six - and that's why breaking into the top six over the last two years has been a big achievement.
When you’ve had six out of eight games away from home, it does put things a little bit more into perspective.
The truth is we’ve been away from home so much. We’ve had an incredible amount of away games in this period.
I wasn’t surprised [to see AFC Bournemouth and Southampton getting results last weekend] because I think the Premier League has got that in it. We’ll have our big results on our day, which will come, and I’ve got no doubt we’ll get a win away from home.
I think all managers are under pressure.
I think all managers have a level of it. If you’re at the top, you have to continue winning, and if you at the bottom you have to make sure you avoid the absolute bottom of the table. So we’re all under pressure.
We need the crowd, hugely.
We look at the crowds we’ve been getting over the last two years and it’s been brilliant. We’ll have a capacity against Nottingham Forest – 62,500 fans – so we have huge crowds coming to West Ham. And that’s because they’ve seen good teams playing at West Ham, with some really top players in the West Ham side.
Sometimes when it’s going not so well, you really need the supporters with you, and we need them with us. Hopefully everyone will be cheering our players on.
The people who have been more connected with West Ham, and the older generation, will know much more about Bobby Moore than I do.
I’m actually having dinner tonight with Sir Trevor Brooking and I’ll be talking to Trevor about Bobby. I was talking to Trevor last week too and he was giving me a good insight.
West Ham still have got the only Englishman to lift the World Cup. It’s quite an achievement. It’s a real source of pride that West Ham have that legendary figure. I hope at tomorrow’s game that everyone will remember him.
