Ahead of Thursday's humdinger of a clash against Olympiacos, David Moyes underlined his side have to 'play much better' than they did in the 2-1 defeat to the Greek side in Athens last time out in the Europa League.
West Ham will welcome Olympiacos to a sold-out London Stadium, with the east London club selling almost 60,000 tickets for the European clash.
It will be the first time the sides have met on English soil since 1965, when a brace from Geoff Hurst helped to secure a 4-0 win for the Irons.
Much of the same will be needed as West Ham look to secure European football for after Christmas, with a win tomorrow giving them the certainty that they will be in either the Europa League or Conference League for the knockout rounds.
Moyes was largely upbeat as he previewed an entertaining game, with the Scotsman keen to see his side show Olympiacos what they are about and, crucially, secure an important win to bounce back from the weekend's defeat to Brentford.
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Moyes gave a largely upbeat update with just Kurt Zouma the only potential absentee for Thursday’s game. The centre-back has not played since West Ham’s loss to Everton at the end of October, however, Moyes reiterated that while Zouma has not trained on the Wednesday, he did do work inside and potentially may be included.
“We’re still waiting a little bit on Kurt [Zouma]. He didn’t train this morning but he’s done a little bit inside so we’ll have a look at Kurt tomorrow and see how he is.”
Moyes was also asked how the busy schedule is affecting his squad. The Hammers find themselves playing their third successive season of European football, a competition that can sometimes leave players fatigued by the weekend. Furthermore, West Ham are also in the latter rounds of the Carabao Cup, adding to an already busy calendar.
Moyes also gave an update on Alvarez who was suspended for the weekend’s game at Brentford, he said: “Ederson’s really important to us, we missed him at the weekend, he had a suspension, so yeah he’s back in the squad and with everyone else.
"He’s made a really positive start here to me and team, but to all supporters as well, they’ve seen him in a very good light so we’re pleased with how he’s done and how he’s settled in to the Premier League.”
However, Moyes was keen to reiterate that that is why he has a large squad at his disposal and significant strength in depth to be able to compete on three fronts.
“The regular games is difficult but we bring all these players in to play them. We don’t just play eleven players anymore, there’s no managers who do that. Most journalists continue to ask if you change your players and swap them around but we’ve all now got squads of players that’s part and parcel of football.
"We understand that, that we need to change the squad and see players fit and available with the incredible busy schedule we have. It’s worked very well over the last couple of years and we’ll continue to do it.”
On tomorrow’s opposition
Moyes was full of praise for Olympiacos, and also underlined how this is the most difficult European group West Ham have faced so far, with German side SC Freiburg and Greek Super League side Olympiacos representing stern opposition.
The former Manchester United boss said: “They’re a very experienced European team, they’ve played a lot in the UK. If you look through the years, they’re very experienced as a football club. We are up against a good team and I think our group having Freiburg and Olympiacos in it is probably the toughest group we’ve had in three years so we’re going to have to play well”.
Moyes described how a particularly significant factor in the loss to Olympiacos, just under two weeks ago, was the atmosphere in Athens at the Karaiskakis Stadium, with the Greek fans providing an intimidating showing for the travelling side.
“It was difficult challenges against Olympiacos, the crowd were phenomenal. They played an enormous part in the result. I have to be honest on the day we didn’t perform well, nowhere near our standards or our levels so I’m looking forward to a much better night tomorrow. We will get out there, we want to be in Europe after Christmas time, if we can win tomorrow night, we will have ourselves in one of the tournaments, either the Europa League or Conference League.”
The West Ham boss was also keen to point out the impressive crowd that will be at the London Stadium tomorrow, with the Scotsman believing the home support can spur his side on to a victory.
Asked on what he learnt from the Olympiacos defeat, he said: “I don’t think I learnt anything that I didn’t know; they’ve got some really good players, we knew exactly what the atmosphere was like but its difficult until you actually witness it.
"We’re up against one of the better teams in Europe that we’ve played at home. We’re close to a sell out at the stadium, we’ve got 55,000 or 60,000, it’s an incredible crowd for a group game so I think we’ll give Olympiacos a chance to see us in better form and the crowd in better fettle with a full stadium.”
With West Ham already having an impressive record of 11 wins out of 14 at home in Europe, Moyes may just prove right and see his side enjoy an impressive return to home soil after their loss on the continent.
On Bowen’s striker role:
With Michail Antonio now 33 years of age, the striker, who was formerly a right back, has seen himself sitting on the sidelines in favour of the potentially more sprightly and dynamic Jarrod Bowen.
With eight goals in the Premier League, Moyes' decision has been justified with the former Hull City player helping West Ham to victories both time he has played in the number nine role, against SC Freiburg and Arsenal in the Carabao Cup.
“He’s happy to play in any positions we put him in, I think partly here because of the history of Marko and Mic, we’ve moved players around and also the other reason is that finding other strikers is difficult and very expensive.
"Jarrod also in his early days played some games up top for Hull so it was always in my mind and I was always aware that he had done it really well."
He added: “He plays really well whenever he plays for us, he scored another goal for us at the weekend and he’s kept his goals ticking along and we’ve really needed that because he’s been really important for us.”
With Antonio coming back into the side at the weekend to play against Brentford while Bowen dropped deeper, it will be interesting to see who Moyes picks to lead the line and cause Olympiacos problems in what promises to be an entertaining match.
Ogbonna on Olympiacos, his team’s confidence and the change over his ten years at the club
Angelo Ogbonna also sat down to face the media on Wednesday afternoon at West Ham’s Rush Green Training Ground. The centre-back, who has been at West Ham for ten years now, gave some interesting insight into the confidence of his side after their success in Europe last year, the view he has of Olympiacos and the change that has occurred over his ten year spell at the club.
Ogbonna was keen to point out that the levels of confidence within the Europa Conference League Winners side are sky high, and that that is always the case despite their poor results in what he described as a ‘tight’ and ‘unpredictable’ league.
He said: “Our confidence is very good, we start the season really well and the last two weeks we’ve had bad results but the Premier League is very tight, it’s unpredictable. Our confidence is always good.”
Regarding tomorrow’s opposition, Olympiacos, Ogbonna was keen to not focus too much on the Greek Super League side and instead highlighted that it will be how his side play that will define the outcome of the game.
Ogbonna said: “We had a bad game, they didn’t cause too many issues. We’re focusing on our game and we didn’t perform how we wanted ourselves to. We are not looking at them, we respect them, but we are concentrating on what we need to do.”
The 35 year-old, who has been at West Ham since July of 2015, has made over 237 appearances for the East London club, witnessing the huge change and upheaval that has gone on at the club including the stadium move from the Boleyn Ground to the London Stadium as well as the numerous relegation battles before finally enjoying successive seasons playing football on the continent.
Ogbonna described the change as ‘massive’ and underlined the ‘special effect’ playing in Europe has had, he said: "I think it’s been a massive change, not just from the players but from everyone, the staff and every department. We’ve improved in every department the fact that we’re playing in Europe has a special effect, all the tickets have been sold out tomorrow. The changes in the club have been massive and everyone is excited.”
With under 24 hours until kick-off, Ogbonna will be hoping his side can continue their European odyssey with a win over Greek giants Olympiacos and the securing of knockout football after Christmas on the continent.
