Moyes insists he ‘can’t take eye off PL’ amid European success

West Ham manager David Moyes insists he can not afford to take his eye off the ball in the Premier League as his side continue to perform in Europe.

Last season’s sixth-place finish was enough to take the Hammers into the Europa League this term, although they were close to finishing in the top four.

They continued their European adventure on Thursday evening, beating Rapid Vienna 2-0 at the London Stadium.

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Moyes has insisted he is loving the opportunity to compete in Europe this season and is relishing the busy schedule.

“We want European football – I wish it was the Champions League because it would mean we had Wednesday-Saturday (fixtures) – but if we’re getting Thursday-Sunday, I’m taking that all day long,” he said.

“We’re loving being in the European competition. We’ve got a lot of players who have not been in European football before.

“I’d like to be in European football after Christmas time, that’s my goal with this competition at the moment.

“I can’t take my eye off the ball with the Premier League but I’m doing my best to juggle the squad and give everybody minutes and hope to try and win the games by using as may players as I possibly can.”

Moyes has also heaped praise on winger Said Benrahma – who scored the second goal against their Austrian opponents on Thursday.

Benrahma took 31 games to score his first Hammers goal, but has started this season in impressive form.

Speaking on the Algeria international, Moyes said: “Since he’s come to us he’s taken a bit of time (to adapt) but I say this quite often about the players who come up from the Championship and even players we bring in from abroad, coming into the Premier League is not an easy one to step into and hit the ground running.

“Some players do, some don’t.

“I think it’s taken Said a little bit of time to understand his roles and how he has to play at this level.

“But we’ve been really pleased with him, he’s been a big positive for us since the start of the season.”