David Moyes appeared unconcerned by our first European defeat in 18 games this evening, a 2-1 loss to Olympiakos.
Indeed, he was fairly evasive about what had been a dismal performance against a team that is scarcely on par with the Euro powers, having taken only one point from its first two group games. Instead, he said that we went into the game thinking about a wider picture – Everton at the weekend.
His post-match comments were odd, considering that last season, when the Hammers’ Premier League performance was so terrible, he told us the season was all about Europe!
Now it’s the other way around, and it doesn’t sound terribly convincing. It’s like playing both ends against the middle and having your cake and eating it.
In reviewing the game, he made it plain that we moved a lot of guys tonight, which, after Sunday’s stunner, wasn’t such a bad idea, eh?
He went on to clarify that we have a League Cup game next week and that we had won the first two games in the group, which provided us the flexibility to make changes tonight.
“But maybe I have to recognize that while we didn’t win through the Conference League games easily, coming to Olympiacos after winning away in Freiburg, which was a good result, this wasn’t a good result and wasn’t a good performance,” he stated more seriously.
We obviously had a greater vision in our heads heading into Sunday.
Nobody could argue that the team we started with was not a good team capable of winning or performing. Many of them have been and continue to be excellent players for us over the years.”
“We’ve had to do this for two years now, where we’ve had to consider which team to play on a Thursday night in order to have a team ready for a Sunday,” he continued.
The recovery period, which is difficult to convey if you are not part in it, is challenging. It’s not easy, if you look at the teams that have been engaged.
If you change your team, you expect to have more fresh players for Sunday, so let’s hope we’re fresh for Sunday.”
But wait, isn’t that the job? Excuses and discrepancies, in my opinion!
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