David Moyes is confident he can make West Ham “great again” as he prepares his side for their Premier League clash with Leeds on Friday.
The Hammers had climbed up to fifth in the table after navigating a tricky run of fixtures, before defeat to Manchester United saw them drop down to eighth.
Moyes took charge of his second spell with the Hammers on December 30 2019 with the club 17th and just one point above the relegation zone, but he has seen improvements since then and believes there is more to come.
“I think we have improved as we have gone along,” Moyes said.
“We have scored a few goals but maybe we are missing Michail Antonio a bit, maybe we are not as clinical when we have had opportunities. I put the last game (Manchester United) as an example. We should have had that game seen off.
“Look, we are growing. We are not going to suddenly go from just being outside the bottom three to just being outside the top three, that’s just not going to happen.
“We have to take small steps, do it layer on layer, continue to make progress.
“We have done and I’m regularly looking to see how we can get this better again, whether it is new faces, the way we play, formation, I am always looking to add to it.
“It covers a multitude of things, like having everybody back at London Stadium right behind the team, the positivity there, so we are trying to grow all things that are connected to getting better results.
“It’s a great club and it’s my job to make it great again. I feel there are opportunities to do that.”
Moyes has had the luxury of playing a relatively settled side in the Premier League this season. Seven of his 25-man squad have played in every game, while nine have played in all but two.
Jarrod Bowen and Tomas Soucek, who were signed by Moyes in January, have been ever-presents, with the Hammers boss crediting recent transfer activity as a factor in his side’s progress.
“I want players that are hungry, that want to get better and have something to prove,” Moyes said. “I think a lot of the players that we want to bring in are of that ilk and I don’t think there is any magic formula because you get as many wrong as you do right. It’s never easy, recruitment.
“I don’t think anyone wants to sign a bad player, you want to sign one who you hope is going to make improvements to your squad but now and again, you need to be lucky and get ones that step up to the plate and thankfully we’ve had two or three who have done that.”
