David Moyes is raring to get stuck back into the match action at home to Burnley in the Premier League on Sunday, just three days after Thursday night’s narrow 1-0 defeat at SC Freiburg in the first leg of the teams’ UEFA Europa League round of 16 clash.
The Hammers are looking to bounce back from that disappointment at the first time of asking, and at the same time stretch a winning run in the league to three games following recent victories over Brentford and Everton.
Another three points at London Stadium would strengthen the seventh-placed Irons’ hopes of qualifying for a fourth successive season of European football, while also serving as a boost ahead of the return leg against Freiburg on Thursday 14 March.
Burnley will arrive in east London seeking to claim a first win of 2024, as they look to kickstart an uphill escape out of the relegation zone. The Clarets are eleven points adrift of safety in 19th, having been promoted as EFL Championship winners last term.
The reverse fixture at Turf Moor yielded a late 2-1 win for West Ham, with a Dara O'Shea own-goal and a Tomáš Souček strike overturning Jay Rodriguez’s penalty opener, and Moyes will be hoping for a slightly less nervy route to success this time around.
Shortly after landing back in the UK, the manager faced the media for his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, when he answered questions about squad rotation, recent form, Burnley’s best assets and more...
Team news
We will have to check on Emerson, because he felt his groin in the game on Thursday night.
We’ll continue to assess Nayef Aguerd, and Maxwel Cornet remains unavailable.
Squad rotation
We always want to win every game we go into, and that will be the same again on Sunday.
We have changed things up sometimes in European games, maybe more so in the group stage than in the knockout rounds.
We have a big game next Thursday to keep in the back of our minds as well, so we’ll name the team we think’s best for each match.
Kalvin Phillips
Kalvin didn’t necessarily need to step up when he arrived here, he just needed gametime to get up to speed. He’s still going through that process, and sometimes it takes time.
I’m sure Kalvin will continue to improve with the more gametime he gets. He's shown small signs of his quality, and his sending-off against Nottingham Forest maybe set him back a bit when he was just about getting up and running again.
Hopefully we can help him get back to the levels he has been at for England in recent seasons. He’s a great boy to work with, and he's doing his best to get to the standard he first set at Leeds United.
Recent form
We’ve had a good couple of results in the league, so we’re looking to keep it going. I think in the last 16 games we are fifth in the form table, so if that is correct, that suggests we are doing quite well.
I think we’ve looked a lot more threatening up front recently, and we were more creative and made more chances against Brentford and Everton. We created opportunities against Freiburg as well, but we couldn’t take them.
I’ve previously alluded to the fact that we have Lucas Paquetá back now, and Mohammed Kudus back at the levels he was at earlier in the season. If Jarrod Bowen can keep his shooting boots on as well then we’ll be in a good place.
In the main, our home form has been OK, so let’s hope we can keep that up until the end of the season. It’s really important we win our games at London Stadium, and of course that’s going to be vital in the second leg against Freiburg next Thursday. It starts with Burnley though, and we’ll do everything we can to get a result.
The busy schedule
At the start of the season I was wondering if we were ever going to get a break, but the period from the start of January has been pretty comfortable. Maybe the injuries we had before played their part.
There’s a part of me enjoying having regular games, and keeping busy. We don’t have much training time when it’s like this - it’s all about recovering and then getting the players ready to go again. I think we’ve enjoyed it over the last few years.
Taking on the Clarets
It’s difficult to transition from the Championship to the Premier League. You tend to find that the teams find it hard to catch up or don’t have the finances to reach the levels that the more solidified teams in the division have over the years.
I do think Burnley have had a great season, and are playing similar football to what they’ve played before. The level of opposition is probably just what’s proved the hard thing to come to terms with.
Vincent Kompany
I have sympathy for a lot of managers, because they need to be given an opportunity and time to do the job. I think he [Kompany] did a brilliant job last year, and I think he showed what he is capable of.
He’s learned a lot off Pep [Guardiola] and then gone to Anderlecht to learn his trade. I genuinely think he’s done a good job, and he’s probably realising now what the levels are when you step up. He’s not got the same players as other clubs, but I think he’s done a really good job with what he has got.
I think managers are entitled to work in the way they see best for them and their club, but I always see good coaching as trying to find a way to win games, maybe from a different perspective.
I’m sure he will keep it going. His team have played very well in many games this season. We got a narrow result at the end of the game at Turf Moor in the reverse fixture, so we will need to play really well at home to get the three points.
