David Moyes Admits He Expected Slow Start to Life at West Ham But Backs Squad to Improve

David Moyes has admitted that he has a lot of work to do at the London Stadium to turn West Ham's fortunes around. 

Speaking after his side capitulated to Marco Silva's impressive Watford team on Sunday, the former Manchester United manager told the club's website that he had expected a slow start - but acknowledged that he needed to work things out sooner rather than later. 

He was also keen to express the importance of continued support from Hammers fans, asking that the supporters back the side through their transition period - especially after outbreaks of angry chanting directed towards the board on Sunday.

Moyes said of his side's performance: "I expected something like that, because that’s what it’s been before.

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“I was disappointed that we didn’t do better, but we missed a couple of really good chances at 1-0, just before half-time. The better team won the game, but there was a chance for us to affect the outcome of the game and we didn’t do it. 

So, we’re going to have to improve and hopefully I’ll get the chance to work with the players over the coming weeks and it will make a difference. I was only ever going to find out what they were like by working with them and then seeing them play during the game.

“We’ve got to try to turn things around quickly and we’ve got to find a way of winning, which we will try to do. The important thing was to stay in the game but, when we conceded the second goal, it became a lot more difficult.

“We ran out of steam with 15 or 20 minutes to go after I thought we started the second half playing better than we did at times in the first half. We have things to work on and, hopefully, things to improve on.

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“We have to try to win games and get results and pick them up as we go along and I believe we will do, but we need to play much better than we did today, because today’s performance wouldn’t be good enough.

“We need to try to pull everybody together. We need the crowd and we need the West Ham supporters. I know from what I saw today why they would be disappointed, because I’d be the first to say it was not good enough.

“I’m really disappointed with the overall performance, but it’s a start and we’ve only been together a week and they’re going to have to give me a little bit of time to do something with it.

“Today’s performance was not good enough, but that’s what I need to assess and we’ve got a lot of games coming up thick and fast, and we need to perform better than that if we’re going to win."