Defender Vladimír Coufal stressed the importance of the West Ham United squad sticking together and re-building their confidence following their 4-1 defeat at Manchester City in the Premier League.
The Hammers enjoyed plenty of positive spells throughout the contest at the Etihad Stadium, and produced 17 shots to their hosts’ ten, but were ultimately undone due to disappointing showings at both ends of the pitch.
Indeed, while Niclas Füllkrug did convert one of those shots, it proved only a mere consolation after a Coufal own-goal, an Erling Haaland brace and a Phil Foden strike had already put the result beyond doubt.
Savinho’s cross deflected off Czech Republic international Coufal for an unfortunate opener just ten minutes in, and while admitting more could’ve been done overall defensively, the 32-year-old pointed towards some of the good things in the game, that his side will look to use going forward.
“It’s a bit of a tricky game to analyse,” he said. “We didn’t take our chances in the first half, and they’re a quality team so they scored from the opportunities they had.
“In some parts of the game we played some good football, and I don’t remember a game where we had so many good opportunities but struggled to score.
“Defensively it’s disappointing, but we defend as a team and attack as a team, and overall we know we can do better. It’s a bit tough to take at the moment, but we know we have done some good things so we have to stick together.”
The result marked West Ham’s second defeat in succession since the end of their four-game unbeaten run in December, and having conceded nine goals in the space of a week Coufal knows certain elements of the team’s play needs to improve.
But with back-to-back home clashes to look forward to in the league - against Fulham and Crystal Palace - following next Friday’s FA Cup visit to Aston Villa, he is hopeful the side can bounce back to winning ways.
Coufal - whose outing in Manchester was his 15th of the season in all competitions - added: “It’s a difficult moment for us, and we need to start playing our football again and getting back to the levels we know we’re capable of.
“That starts back at the training ground straightaway, and we’ll do everything we can to bounce back on the pitch in our next game.”
