West Ham: The Gaffer talks Southampton, injuries, and togetherness

David Moyes met with the media today for a press conference leading up to the West Ham v Southampton mega clash in what many are calling a must-win affair.

As the Gaffer sat down with the West Ham media today to cover every pre-Southampton related, that major question marks remained injuries, protests, and overall form. With a bit of hype since the Hammers last match when they took the league leaders down to the wire.

Starting with injuries, Moyes was asked about the current absentee Hammers and the newest injury to the squad Tomas Soucek who went out last Monday at Liverpool after what was an impressive showing from the Czech.

The Gaffer had some brighter news on the Hammers Ukrainian international, Andriy Yarmolenko, stating ” he played in a practice match and he is getting closer but he is not ready to return just yet.” Insuring for sure as it would nice to keep the depth deep for the Hammers attacking players.

Moyes went on to say that Soucek will be a “big miss” for the club and we all here at GSH definitely wish him well. For Jack Wilshere… still not too much hope:

"“Jack Wilshere has returned to doing work on the pitch and he is progressing. I would hope Jack will play this season and he will get himself into shape and fit enough to do so, but I cannot guarantee it.”"

Tomorrow’s match will mark another occasion in which Hammers supporters will be protesting the West Ham board. This time they will be conducting a march and the media team asked the Gaffer just what would the message be to the fans of the club?

"“We want everybody to be together. We need everybody to be positive inside the stadium, stick with the team, because the team needs you badly. We’re expecting to get out of the bottom three, but we need to do it sooner rather than later. We’re doing good things, but we need to turn them into points and be more consistent. If we cut out the mistakes, I think we’ll be ok.”"

Not overwhelmingly optimistic or positive but all in all, we get the message. The best part about these protests has been that they are solely based on the board and not the rest of the West Ham squad and staff.

David Moyes went on the match itself and whether or not Jarrod Bowen would be a major part of it. The Gaffer praised the Saints after they have bounced back from a 9-0 loss to Leicester City earlier this season and said this about the match:

"“Every game is the biggest game of the season as you’re required to win every one. We’ve got eleven games to go and everyone is going to be big. I think the players have done a good job in recent matches in different ways, but we need to show better quality when we’ve got the ball and got opportunities. I think we’ll go into the game confident and feeling that we’ve got a good chance of winning.”"

As far as Bowen, this might have been the most talked-about piece of the press conference as he approached it with typical David Moyes-like bravado… and I don’t mean that in a good way.

"“I’ve got to use my experience. Players like Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka took six months to settle into the Premier League, but others like Tim Cahill made an impact straight away. I’ll assess Jarrod and see where he is at. I want him to be in the long term. If we are signing a player from Hull and hoping him to be a savior, I think that’s unfair, but he’s looking very good and very sharp.”"

On the one hand, he’s right. You can never expect someone to come into the league for the first time and run the table but on the other, didn’t you sign him to do just that Moyesy? And it may be a little unfair to put that on Jarrod but he kind of needs to be that at the moment.

All in all, not a bad presser and the potential of getting Yarmo back soon is a good touch especially with the club possibly getting on a good run of form. Tomorrow is a huge match for the Hammers… so let’s all hope they come out with the same fight as on Monday night.