West Ham manager David Moyes held his press conference this morning ahead of the Hammers trip to Anfield to face Liverpool on Saturday evening and gave an update on the key topics including the fitness of Michail Antonio.
The Irons head to Anfield with confidence on the back of consecutive draws against Tottenham and Manchester City respectively.
Moyes began by dealing with the issue over his key striker: “Michail has been great for us and has played really well. He came off against Spurs and he felt it against Man City too. We don’t think it’s too bad but it’s enough to keep him out of tomorrow’s game.”
The 57-year-old turned his attention to Saturday’s opponents and their own injury issues: “Obviously you’d rather play Liverpool without Virgil van Dijk, but maybe they’re looking at it in the same way with us and Michail Antonio.”
Finally, Moyes touched on his own teams form as well as the visit to Anfield last season which saw his side throw away a lead before going down 3-2: “Last year we were really unfortunate not to get a result at Liverpool. There have been signs of improvement – I think we’re capable, we want to get to a stage where we have consistency and I think the players so far, taking away Newcastle, have shown a good level of consistency.”
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The disappointing news surrounding Antonio is of course the headline and the news nobody of a claret and blue association wanted to hear.
Moyes refused to be too down about his in-form striker’s injury and wouldn’t put a date on a return, although reports have suggested the 30-year-old could be out for up to a month.
Sebastien Haller will likely be the man tasked to step up and fill the substantial boots left-behind. The £45m man could come up against a 19-year-old centre-half in Rhys Williams in the reigning Premier League champions lineup.
