Upbeat Rice words but worries won’t go away

Declan Rice believes some added recovery time is just what the Hammers squad needs right now as we prepare for the next relegation crunch match.

Chelsea next Wednesday means that the squad will have had over a week to recover from the defeat against Spurs and the last thing we need is a trio of defeats.

The lack of points is disastrous but the sapping of confidence will eventually become as big a problem – if it hasn’t already – although results continue to help us.

It has to be difficult to keep trotting players out to give quotes that are in anyway new or uplifting. No points and four goals against speaks for itself,

Good on Declan for trying but right now it makes cold reading as he explains again what needs to happen because frankly: We know!

However, he gavce his views https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/june/24-june/declan-rice-we-need-stay-calm-stay-confident-stick-together-and

What does need to be said is that if the remainder of the squad can raise their game to his level we will be safe. End of!

Declan said: “I think we’ve got enough experienced players in the team who have been around the game for years. I’m only new to it so this is a whole new experience for me, but I’m learning every day.

“We’ve got a squad of players and now we need each other more than ever. We’ve got Chelsea next Wednesday and we’ll be giving the exact same effort.”

Frankly, however, I hope there’s a bit more than that!

He added: “We’ve got a bit more recovery time now, so we need to go into that game giving it a good old shot, then obviously it comes down to the games we’ve got against the teams around us, which will be even tougher.

“Look, we know we’re in a tough position. No-one wants to be where we are, but I’m confident and the lads are confident that we can get out of this, and we need a couple of wins.”

“The minimum is 100 per cent effort against teams like Chelsea, Spurs, the top six, that’s the minimum and that’s all you should be giving

“If you’re in the starting eleven and you’re playing against Chelsea, you already know it’s a London derby so you’re up for it.

“As soon as you’re out on the pitch you want to make things happen and you need to give 100 per cent as that’s what the fans deserve and that’s what the manager deserves.

“Like I said, we’ve got a bit more recovery time now, but there’s no time to wait around now. It’s getting really serious. No-one wants to be where we are, let me tell you, it’s horrible, so we need to stay calm, stay confident and start picking up some points.

“There are seven games to go now and we need to go into them thinking we’re going to win all seven. It’s going to be tough, but if we have the right mentality for sure, and if we stick together, it can be done.”