David Moyes admitted his West Ham United team had not played well enough as the Irons were held to a 1-1 Premier League draw by AFC Bournemouth at London Stadium.
The Hammers fell behind to Dominic Solanke's goal within three minutes and, with players absent, returning from international duty and Kalvin Phillips making his debut, it took time for the hosts to find their rhythm.
As it was, it was Mohammed Kudus, who had recently come back from the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, who won a penalty and James Ward-Prowse who converted it to secure a point.
The Scot switched his attacking players around in search of a winning formula, but on the night he simply could not find one to get the better of an in-form Bournemouth.
It is now one defeat in eleven and six unbeaten in the Premier League for the Irons, who remain in sixth place ahead of Sunday's trip to seventh-placed Manchester United, and manager Moyes knows his team will need to produce a more convincing display if they are to maintain their position at Old Trafford...
We couldn’t come up with the right formula.
Let’s be fair, we gave them a leg up, right from the start. We gave them an opportunity to get a goal in front, which put us under a bit more pressure to show what we can do.
Look, we didn’t do that much. We had a couple of opportunities, but not great ones, our play wasn’t good. Our set-up wasn’t good and I take responsibility for that.
We didn’t find any rhythm to it at all.
Even Mo coming back from the Africa Cup of Nations, it took a bit of time for him to find his level. He got us a penalty kick later on.
It just a few looked as if we’d had ten days without a game, which is something we’ve not had very often.
I’ve got to say we looked a bit leggy and we didn’t play well enough, whether we had set up well or whether we hadn’t. The side still didn’t play individually as well as it should have done.
People will see what my words were [when I said] Kalvin might be okay, he might not be.
He’s not probably as sharp and will need a little bit to get going again. Let’s be fair, we could have helped him a lot more tonight – the players who have been here and doing a job because we just put ourselves under so much pressure right from the start, and didn’t play well enough with what we had after that.
I was thrilled with a draw in the end.
Obviously I was hoping we could nick a winner at the end, but the game became a bit of a basketball game, which I didn’t like, because our structure didn’t look strong enough. That’s something we’re normally good at.
We allowed them quite a few counter attacks and we gave the ball away quite cheaply in so many different areas tonight, which was costly.
It’s really important we try to get back to where we were.
We sort of broke up when we were in good form, a good mindset and in a great position. Whether it would be the Africa Cup of Nations, a few injuries we’ve picked up, the transfer window, all those things. They’ve meant that January has been a bit disrupted.
We got knocked out of the FA Cup after a replay too, which was all to do with us not winning here.
We’re just not quite looking like we’re scoring the goals we have been. Defensively, I don’t think we’ve done awfully well, but we’re not conceding lots at the moment.
We just don’t look as if we’re really scoring at the moment, so that’s a bit of a concern to me.
We’re in a really good league position still.
It’s going to be tough for us to stay there because of the competition. I wouldn’t say we’re punching above our weight, but we’re fighting the teams above us.
We’re challenging them, we want to compete with them, but obviously we’ve got a lot of good teams on our tail as well.
