David Moyes says all the right things in his opening West Ham press conference

David Moyes is back at West Ham, and ahead of his first match as manager (again) he is tasked with tackling the media yet again in his inaugural press conference. Here’s what he said!

While ambition may be lacking for West Ham in the supporters’ eyes, David Moyes has ambition of his own and it has to be music to the fans’ ears. When asked about his contract he confirmed there is an extension clause past 18 months and said he wants to make it “impossible that the clause can’t be implemented. That’s my plan and I want to carry it out.”

While more than 18 months of Moyes may give some a headache, the idea behind his extension would suggest he was a smashing success at the club! Ironically, for Moyes to succeed the team must succeed causing an existential crisis for the doom merchants on social media.

Moyes also retorted to questions about supporters being angry and negative about his appointment, stating that he wants “a strong, attacking, entertaining team and I hope to bring all those things to the table” in an effort to win supporters over. Not a bad idea, as Pellegrini failed to bring organization, both attacking and defending, to the table as his predecessor.

The most important part of Moyes’ press conference was his explanation of how he’s remained in touch with football since being relieved of his West Ham duties 18 months ago. He stated that he’s been working with UEFA to keep up to date on modern football. He also shared some insight into how football is being played now with “goals…being scored differently” via incisive runs and though balls.

He also stressed the importance of the tested, tried and true basics of football, emphasizing their importance while integrating and prioritizing new developing adaptive styles of play. To be honest, this is far more than I expected to hear from Moyes, specifically about tactical analysis.

He also continued on to discuss recruitment and noted RB Salzburg and RB Leipzig as teams he admires, which is a huge positive. He also noted, negatively I might add, that there is money to spend but his focus is on the players he has and getting the most out of them. I suppose any manager would state this after joining a team just a few days ahead of the transfer window, but he needs to spend some money ASAP.

We know he’ll already know what Noble, Lanzini, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Masuaku, and Rice all bring to the table, these were his key players in his previous stint as manager. What we don’t know is how he’ll get the most out of Haller, or how he’ll deploy Anderson and Fornals.

It’s clear that Moyes hasn’t been sitting around feeling sorry for himself when he was forgotten for Pellegrini after his 6-month appointment in East London. This is a positive for the Hammers. It also should be believed that he was put on alert for this job as far back as November and has likely been targetting players, honing tactics, and staying fresh in the world of football as a result. He’s started on the right foot, so now it’s time for the supporters to back him moving forward.