Vladimír Coufal wants his West Ham United teammates to stay positive despite a frustrating 2-1 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
The Hammers saw a Michail Antonio opener cancelled out by Ben Chilwell, before Kai Havertz put Chelsea ahead when he finished a cross with two minutes left on the clock.
Substitute Maxwel Cornet might have grabbed West Ham a late point but saw his 90th minute equaliser ruled out by VAR, with Jarrod Bowen adjudged to have committed a foul before the ball hit the net.
As expected, Coufal was left frustrated at the final whistle, with the Hammers unlucky to leave west London pointless.
“It is very difficult to describe the feelings [in the dressing room] right now,” Coufal said. “We feel we could have taken some points from Stamford Bridge - and that we had enough power to get them.
“I am disappointed because we could kill the game maybe, but we conceded a goal instead. I don’t think [we switched off]. There was a misunderstanding maybe for the first goal and the second goal there was a cross and we did not cover the player. It is difficult.”
Coufal was part of a defensive line that did well to frustrate the hosts for the first hour of the match.
Their efforts meant that two late Chelsea goals were tough to take for the Czech Republic international, as West Ham could not hold on to their lead at Stamford Bridge before the late equaliser was then ruled out.
The Hammers face FSCB next in the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage before hosting Newcastle United the following weekend.
And Coufal is confident West Ham can bounce back immediately.
“Unfortunately, we dropped too deep in some situations, but we have to keep our heads up and keep going,” he said.
“We can take many positives from this game. We are building something new; we are trying to play a different way than how we played in the last two seasons."
