Following West Ham’s important victory over Greek giants Olympiacos, a smiling David Moyes was keen to underline how this was a ‘great night in Europe’, with the manager adding ‘long may they continue’ after his side bounced back to winning ways after the weekend’s defeat to Brentford.
After a first half which saw a lack of quality in the final third, Lucas Paqueta finally found the breakthrough after James Ward-Prowse had expertly played the ball over the top to find the in-form and ever clinical Brazilian who rather cheekily wheeled away to celebrate in front of the away fans.
After the game, David Moyes gave his post-game thoughts in which he described his team as ‘worthy winners’ in what is a tough group but also underlined how some players have room for improvement.
On the result
With VAR often marred in controversy, tonight it had a rare moment of praise with the video officials interrupting to declare Paqueta’s goal onside after the linesman had initially flagged it up.
Asked on whether he was grateful for VAR’s intervention, the West Ham manager replied: “I don’t think it did need to come to the rescue because it was onside. It was a goal but the linesman did put his flag up. We were worthy of a victory, we made more chances I thought than they did but it was very tight, there was very little in the game.”
Moyes also pointed out that while West Ham top their group it has not been without it’s challenges, with SC Freiburg and Olympiacos representing the sternest challenges West Ham have faced at this stage of the competition in comparison to previous seasons.
Moyes said: “We would like to finish top of the group, we’re top at the moment but we still have to play Freiburg here which is obviously going to be hugely important and we obviously have to go to Serbia so two more games to play but at the moment I think this is the hardest group we’ve had in the three years. You know that proved to be the case, Olympiacos are a seasoned European team and they showed that tonight.”
While West Ham’s 17 game unbeaten record ended last time out in Europe in Piraeus, the Hammers have gone and set another one tonight going ahead of Manchester City’s current 8 game winning record at home in Europe.
On the record, the Irons boss said: “Well we were disappointed to lose the previous record of 17 games, two weeks ago against Olympiacos, so to get back on track tonight [was good].”
He added: “European games have been very good for us over the last two, three years for us. It’s been a great competition for this football club as you see we’ve had over 55,000 people here tonight at the game. Great nights in Europe and long may they continue”.
On the importance of taking this form into the league
West Ham have been something of a Jekyll and Hyde under David Moyes in recent times, with excellent European form often contrasted with poor performances in the league.
Discussing this, Moyes underlined how it is not easy from playing on a Thursday to having to compete on a Sunday against sides that have not been involved in Europe, as has been the case recently with games against Everton and Brentford before playing a rested Nottingham Forest side on Sunday, in what is a crucial Premier League game.
Moyes said: “It’s hugely important that we continue to challenge and be as good as we possibly can be in the Premier League but we can only take each game as it is. We got the job done tonight and got a good result. Tonight I think it was a great game for us and a good result in Europe again and keeps us top of the group.”
He continued: “I think if you look at it to play Thursday and Sunday [it’s challenging], this month we have had three teams who have had a full week to prepare while we’ve had cup competitions and Europe to compete in”.
On Lucas Paqueta
Paqueta can often be West Ham’s most spectacular player, with the tricky Brazilian midfielder famed for excellent skills and cheeky nutmegs. In addition, the former Olympique Lyon player was involved in West Ham’s most important moment last year, playing in Jarrod Bowen to score the winner in the Europa Conference League final in Prague.
However, Moyes believes the player still has a lot to work on and while he likes his cheekiness and unpredictability, the manager was keen to see him improve on the ball retention aspect to his game.
Moyes said: “I want him to do a lot of things well. He takes the goal brilliantly well tonight but there were other parts of the game that I would have liked him to have been better at tonight but it wasn’t just him, I think there were several players that I think you can put in that category
On what Paqueta can improve on in particular, the manager said: “He’s so good on the ball, he can keep it better. I think he had quite a lot of giveaways in the first half especially.”
He added: “I thought he improved in the second half but his goal made a big difference, it’s normally the other way round, Paqueta playing other people in for chances so it was good that James Ward-Prowse played a lovely ball over the top and Lucas made a good run. We had lacked a little bit of something special in the final third really. We had done some good things but we needed something to happen and thankfully that moment got us a goal.”
Moyes finalised by saying: “We’ve got room for improvement, we played better in the early part of the season and we are just catching back up again I think”.
