Winston Reid has been one of West Ham United’s outstanding performers during the Club’s challenging start to 2016/17.
The New Zealand defender, now in his seventh season in east London, has made more clearances, blocks and interceptions than any other Hammer this season.
Reid was at his resilient best again during Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Liverpool, and believes Slaven Bilic’s side are getting closer to discovering their best form ahead of vital home Premier League fixtures with Burnley and Hull City.
Winston, do you agree that we deserved a point at Liverpool on Sunday?
“Yeah, we did our best. It’s difficult times. I think the most important thing was to keep hold of a point at the end, because it would have demoralising for us if we’d lost at the end.
“Sunday’s result has lifted the spirit of the team and I think it was important for us as a group of players, even if the last half-an-hour was a bit of a slog for us. We had to compact, we had to be solid and defend. I know it sounds a bit boring, but that’s what we had to do.
“We had a couple of moments of brilliance from Dimi, who showed his class again, and Michail got his goal again.”
Where are we as a team at the moment? Are we getting back to our best?
“It was a good team performance, but I think we can still improve massively, especially in the beginning of each half. We have to do much better, because we haven’t been starting games well enough. The guys give everything, so it’s not anything like that, but we need to do better.
“Don’t get me wrong, we’re conceding goals, but I just think we need to continue doing what we’re doing, because I believe we will improve.
“We’ve got injuries at the moment and, while it’s not an excuse, when you’re missing senior players it restricts the options available to the manager. That’s football and injuries are part of it.”
“I thought Nord came in and did well in an unfamiliar position at right-back, Cress came back in and he’s important. Ayew gave us a bit of composure when it was needed, and it was good for him to get out and play the minutes he needed.
“It was good to get Andy back out there, too, so hopefully we can start getting our players back in the squad. Everyone needs to keep fit and healthy and we can move forward.”
We’ve played four of the top sides in recent weeks – Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool – and now we host Burnley and Hull City this week…
“If you look at it, we had four tough games, especially as three were away and only one was at home, and we only played poor in one half – the second half against Arsenal.
“That wasn’t very good from us, but really we’ve done well in those four games as a whole and could have drawn all three away games. That was the message from the manager, that we’ve just got to believe in ourselves as a team.
“I know it’s difficult when you’re conceding four and five goals, as we did recently, and you can see that around the dressing room, but Slaven has always been good at coming in and keeping the players’ spirits high.
“We’ve been training well and everything and hopefully we’re starting to turn the corner now, because we really need to.”
Most importantly, we need everyone on the same page when we face Burnley at London Stadium on Wednesday night?
“One-hundred per cent. It’s important, because we need to get a win. We’ll recover and rest and be back at it on Wednesday.”