Goalkeeping duo Łukasz Fabiański and Darren Randolph say the entire squad is motivated to getting West Ham United’s 2022/23 campaign back on track.
The Irons returned to Premier League action on Boxing Day following the hiatus for the 2022 World Cup with a defeat at league leaders Arsenal, but a visit of Brentford to London Stadium on Friday for the Hammers’ final match of the calendar year gives the team an opportunity to bounce back quickly.
Both shot-stoppers are eager to find winning form once again in front of home support, although each knows the dangers that Thomas Frank’s side will pose against them.
Randolph said: “We need to try and get back on track. If we can turn London Stadium into a bit of a fortress, then that would make things easier for us. It would be good for all of us in terms of the restart to the second half of the season and would let us kick on and get the performances and results in our favour.”
“If you look at Brentford, they are able to adjust to any team that they play against and they are very efficient at getting results,” Fabiański added. “I think that is one of their main strengths, and they know how to play against certain teams.
“They can be physical and they can play good football. They are very well drilled, and they have some very good players, and they’ve shown this year and last year that they are a very, very strong side.”
With the team experiencing a short run of defeats prior to the break for the World Cup, the opportunity to refresh over the domestic hiatus was not lost on Fabiański, although the experienced goalkeeper also theorised that continuing to play would have allowed the team to try and find form.
“If you look at the results before the World Cup break, they were not great, so everyone always assumes the break is a good thing. But I believe if you played the games without any break then that gives you an opportunity to come back and maybe get better results.
“It’s always hard to find the right answer to that question but that’s what happened, in terms of the break, which gave us time to adjust a few things and maybe restart a little bit. It allowed us to come back a bit refreshed.”
A bright spark of the 2022/23 season so far for West Ham has been the UEFA Europa Conference League campaign, with the Irons cruising into the knock-out stages following a 100 per cent record in Group B.
Randolph noted that teams across the continent have sometimes struggled to balance European and domestic schedules but also feels the Hammers’ efforts in the Premier League in the last two years shows just what the Club is capable of.
He added: “There are a lot of games and a lot of travelling, and we were the favourite in the Europa Conference League group stages, but it’s a different type of football. Europe is a different game to in the Premier League. In the league, we know them and they know us.
“We’ve had a good couple of seasons but teams have now been able to prepare for us. It’s always a tough one though because you see teams have a good European run but maybe find the domestic league a bit more difficult.”
