hafter earning a hard-fought win against FCSB in their Europa League group stage opener at the London Stadium last week, West Ham now face a trip to Denmark to play Silkeborg.
David Moyes’ side cruised their way to the three points last Thursday, trailing against FCSB for much of the game before a late flurry of goals from Jarrod Bowen, Emerson Palmieri and Michael Antonio turned the score upside down.
After a poor start to their Premier League campaign, Moyes will be looking to maintain their momentum in Europe. They are currently 18th in the league, having won just one of their games – a 1-0 win against Aston Villa in August – since the start of the season.
Silkeborg lost their first match of the group stage, succumbing to a narrow 1-0 loss to Anderlecht. They are fourth in the Danish Superliga as it stands, but regardless, this is a game West Ham are tipped to win.
Speaking ahead of the match at JYSK Park, which has an artificial pitch, Moyes warned that his players will have to adapt to playing a competitive match on an unfamiliar surface. “There are a lot of different ways to look at the game on artificial turf,” he said.
“As a player I played on plastic for about three years so I have a good idea of what and how you can play and there are different ways and different philosophies of how it should be done and how you look at it.
“But I have to say that in today’s modern football I don’t see the top level players really wanting to play on artificial pitches.
“I totally respect that because I think [it’s good] for young players, for development, for younger age groups, with the weather conditions we have [in northern countries], and I’m from Scotland, so I know very well how important artificial pitches are. But actually I think when you get to top level football, we’re used to the natural [pitches] and we know it will be different for us and we have to take that into account.
Moyes also said his players must show Silkeborg respect, even if West Ham are clear favourites.
“Silkeborg are a really good passing team,” he said. “I’ve actually seen it in a lot of Danish football and at the moment, I have to say, I think Denmark are showing a lot of traits, very similar to maybe Holland in the way they play.
“I think technically all teams are trying to do the right things, trying to play in a good way, so we know that’s what we’re up against.
“The Premier League is at a huge technical level, but there is also a very high level of tactical situations. Obviously the Premier League is so tight that you might not get the chance to play as easily at the back, so it will be different, it will be interesting and I think Silkeborg at their home ground will be a test for us.”