Winston Reid says West Ham United need to replicate the hunger and desire they showed in beating Huddersfield Town when they head to The Hawthorns on Saturday.
The vice-captain is eager to build on the Hammers’ first win of the Premier League season when they head to West Bromwich Albion, but knows anything less than 100 per cent commitment will drastically reduce their chances of achieving another positive result.
“We started the game on Monday in a way we didn’t do well enough in our previous matches and said to ourselves ‘We need to go out there and prove the critics wrong’,” said Reid, who will again wear the armband in the injured Mark Noble’s absence.
“First and foremost, every man on the pitch worked for each other. I’m not saying they didn’t before, but we understood the mistakes we had made in the previous three games and knew that conceding that amount of goals was not good enough.
“We realised we had to do a lot better.”
The Hammers kick-off an important week in the West Midlands before welcoming Bolton Wanderers to London Stadium in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, followed by a derby with Tottenham Hotspur in Stratford next Saturday lunchtime.
While those two games are undoubtedly big ones, Reid is not looking past the challenge of facing Tony Pulis’s side, who will themselves be keen to bounce back from a 3-1 defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion a week ago – their first loss of the Premier League season.
We have to go there and approach the game in a similar fashion to Monday’s game, which is starting quick and at a high tempo
Winston Reid
“We have three games this week and first and foremost we are concentrating on the game at West Brom,” he confirmed. “We know what to expect, as they’re a very physical side, are difficult to play against and don’t concede many goals.
“But we have to go there and approach the game in a similar fashion to Monday’s game, which is starting quick and at a high tempo and trying to push them onto the back foot.
“It’s not going to be easy, especially away from home, but I think we have confidence in the group after the last game which we will definitely take with us to The Hawthorns.”
Two players who Reid believes will be vital to West Ham’s chances on Saturday will be England internationals Joe Hart and Andy Carroll.
“For Joe, it was hard because we have to give him better protection,” said the centre-back. “We can’t expect him to be Superman back there, it starts with the players in front of him and, as a team, we didn’t do well enough to protect him.
“Like I said, we have spoken about that, corrected it against Huddersfield and need to keep going in the same way going forward.
“First and foremost, Andy is a handful for the other teams, but he also does well for us going the other way with his defending, which relieves pressure. His work ethic is amazing, he leaves everything out there and we’re delighted to have him back because he’s a massive player for us.
“Now, we just want him to stay fit and score some goals.”