David Moyes credits Celtic upbringing for entertaining West Ham United style

By David Walton

October 31, 2021

West Ham United manager David Moyes has credited his Celtic “upbringing” for his team’s entertaining style in the EPL this season.

Moyes is producing wonders in East London. Not only does he have the Hammers in the top 4 with a game in hand over his rivals, he’s also been doing it with flair and in a manner that has been a joy to watch.

West Ham have scored 16 times this season in only 9 games domestically. That’s more than the firepower of Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Leicester City, and Everton respectively. With talent such as Michail Antonio, Jarrod Bowen, and Said Benrahma available to him, he’s getting a massive tune out of them going forward, with 7 further goals to their name in Europe too.

And Moyes has moved to highlight how his 3-year spell at Parkhead between 1980-83 is what has instilled this urge to play attractive football when possible.

As quoted by the Independent, Moyes said: “It makes me feel really good because I’ve always said I want to be the best and the hardest team to play against – when teams don’t enjoying playing me.

“When I was brought up at Celtic, it was always about winning, first and foremost. Then it was about winning with style and then when you get a good style, they wanted lots of goals. So I feel like my whole background has been in that.

“But when you don’t always have the best players and not always the best, maybe way of playing, then I have to find a way of winning. At the moment I am really fortunate. I have a talented group of players, we’ve brought in some players who have helped that. So I feel we are playing a good style. I want us to be attacking and entertaining but I also want to be defensive and ruthless when we have to be.”

David Moyes quick to credit Celtic history for his West Ham philosophy

Not overly surprising to see Moyes go back to his Celtic roots when he reflects on what makes him successful. He’s always keen to bring the Hoops up and you can see the pride he takes in his time here.

Celtic fans of course got a bitter taste of the stunning football West Ham play under Moyes in a 6-2 pre-season hammering back in July. To say they were impressive would be an understatement.

But given the firepower Moyes has at his disposal, you would expect West Ham to be firing goals in left, right, and centre. It’s no secret that having better attacking players will lead to more goals. Regardless of the footballing philosophy or style of play you have.

Moyes hasn’t traditionally been associated with fast, attacking, easy-on-the-eye football either. His Everton team was more known for its “hard-to-beat” nature. We all saw how the Manchester United experiment worked too whilst his spell with Real Sociedad is also best forgotten about.

However, the Scottish tactician has clearly found a home in East London. He’s building something exciting there and it’ll be intriguing to see if he can land a top 4 finish this term. It’s hardly outside the realms of possiblity.

From a Celtic perspective of course, it’s always pleasing to hear remarks such as these. It shows the kind of mark we really do leave on individuals and managers who come and go.

In other news, Josip Juranovic at left-back is starting to seriously wind up the Celtic supporters