Stuart Pearce is thrilled to bits with the attitude and endeavour he is seeing from the new Hammers as the season hits its halfway point.
The squad has provided the sort of approach we always saw from the man himself at his various clubs and England during the most wholehearted of careers.
‘Psycho’ can, of course, take much pride of his own involvement as a defensive coach given the excellence of the Irons set up at the back this season which has seen them keep four clean sheets from their last five in the Premier League and FA Cup match at Stockport.
Without spending fortunes on new players he has helped groom them into an outfit which has conceded just 22 goals in 19 games.
But he has also been delighted with the form of the Hammers top man Mikey Antonio whom he signed for Nottingham Forest from Sheffield Wednesday.
And speaking on talkSPORT he said: “The manager’s pleased with the results, we all are, and the endeavour the players are putting in is fantastic,”
“But we feel as though we’re seeing a little bit more, maybe, on the training pitch than we’re seeing on matchdays. We feel like they’ve got even more to give – the standards that they can reach are probably higher than where we’re at at this moment in time.
“Don’t get me wrong – winning matches in the Premier League is never easy. We’re delighted with that, the results and the way it’s gone.
“The attitude of the players is absolutely sensational – the work ethic and how they want to learn and progress their careers individually and collectively – but we honestly feel as though there are better performances there.”
And his opinion on Antonio is as high as it gets with him saying: “I signed Mich at Nottingham Forest seven years ago, so I knew the boy we took from Sheffield Wednesday then.
“Since then, and ever since I’ve come back into the Club this time, his hold-up play has improved drastically. It startled me because that was an area of his play we felt he could improve on [then] – and he still can – but I think his hold-up play and his understanding of his runs has improved drastically.”