West Ham United goalkeeper Adrian San-Miguel is optimistic about the club’s Premier League relegation run-in, branding himself as “one of the most positive people here.”
David Moyes’ Hammers take on Leicester City this afternoon in the Premier League and a costly defeat could see them only above the relegation zone on goal difference by the end of today.
The club currently sit a mere three points in front of the bottom three in 15th position and are traveling to the King Power Stadium off the back of consecutive 4-1 losses to Arsenal and Manchester City respectively.
But, the Spaniard Adrian believes that the spirit of his teammates will be enough to get the Irons over the line and see them to safety under Moyes, who replaced Slaven Bilic last November with the team just a single place above the relegation zone, speaking in an Interview with the club’s Official Website WHUFC.com earlier in the week.
“Our spirit will help us over the last three games, we have to be together and we have to be solid as a team, defending and attacking,” stated the former Real Betis star.
“We have to finish well, we have to get some good points as soon as possible, and we have to be a football team [to do that].”
“We need to go back to the beginning, back to the basics. Defend well as a team, and then attack quickly on the counter-attack as we did in the first games under the manager.
“We expect a hard game. Leicester had a bad game last time, like us, and we have to learn from that. If we do well as we did before this run, we can get a good result.
“Our aim is to be safe as soon as possible, and if we can get the win at Leicester, then we can look to finish as high as possible. The first thing is getting three points and Leicester is the first game. We will go there to win.”
The shot-stopper finished with “I’m probably one of the most positive people here, but we are all positive! We are all focused on Saturday’s game because we know we need the three points.”
The side from East London gave conceded the most goals in the English Top-Fight this campaign and as a result, possess one of the worst goal differences, something that could hurt them over the final eight days of the
The Hammers have three matches to save themselves, improving on their current points tally of 35 from as many games, the first of them being against Leicester later today and then London Stadium visits of two of Moyes’ former clubs, Manchester United and Everton under ex-West Ham manager Sam Allardyce.
If they are to survive, an improvement in a defensive sense will undoubtedly have to take place, starting with their final away trip of the season, but what does Adrian think the club’s defensive shortcomings have been of late and how will the defence overcome them?
“We have to learn the lessons on our defensive shape. We gave away easy goals, and we have to do better from the strikers right through to the defenders and goalkeeper, announced the former Spanish International.
“We have to learn from this and stop conceding easy goals. We need to be ready to keep the clean sheet first, score the first goal and then be able to defend the result.”
Adrian has been made to tussle with England man Joe Hart for the goalkeeping jersey all season, something that they have split between them, with the latter having made a handful more appearances so far.
However, Adrian did start for the aforementioned thrashing by the champions the Sky Blues in Stratford last Sunday afternoon, albeit that was down to City loanee Hart being ineligible to play against his present club.
However, the keeper, who has just one-year left on his contract, was hardly at fault for any of the visitors’ four goals, and the last time that he replaced Hart, managed to hold down the position.
That occurred after the reverse fixture with Pep Guardiola’s men in December and the Spanish star remained the first-choice league goalkeeper, until Hart came back in at the end of March.
Since then, the England man has made two errors leading directly to opposition goals, leaving manager Moyes with a selection headache ahead of the 2017/2018 season’s conclusion.
Speaking in his pre-Leicester City press conference at Rush Green training ground on Friday morning, here is what Moyes had to say on the issue of goalkeepers.
“I’ve got a decision to make in goal. Both of them have been in, and Joe was obviously out last weekend due to the terms of his loan agreement.”
Whether it will be Adrian or Hart in goal for the Hammers, you can follow live updates from the pivotal Premier League matchup between Claude Puel’s mid-table Leicester City outfit and David Moyes’ strugglers West Ham United at the King Power Stadium on this Saturday afternoon by heading over to @WestHamMatters_ on Twitter.
