Ahead of West Ham United's Premier League fixture against Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon, Declan Rice has the Last Word...
We play Nottingham Forest on Saturday and I want to welcome Cheikhou Kouyaté, Jesse Lingard and André Ayew back to east London.
Cheikhou is a top lad and had a great run here, Jesse fell in love with us during his six months here, and André was in the team and scored on my debut at Burnley six years ago, and they deserve a warm welcome, but they’re Forest players now and we need to produce the goods and get the better of them.
We have spoken together as a group, both after the game at Spurs and again this week, and every player knows we haven’t been good enough. We should not be in this position, but the reality is that we are, and we know as players that we can only dig deep and ensure this football club stays in the Premier League.
At the moment, where we are is not good, but it’s down to us to keep positive and keep pushing each other as hard as we can and, with the fans behind us today, we’re looking to collect three big points.
Nowadays, there is a lot of criticism, but I don’t listen to it, and we have to shut all that out. I have done that. I’m not looking at social media or apps. I speak to my family and my friends and that’s it.
You have to take constructive comments to learn and get better, of course, and I’ve done that throughout my career, but when you hear stuff that isn’t true, you just have to ignore it. I know I and the lads are trying to stay as focused and level-headed as possible and tackle the job at hand.
We’ve never once stepped on the pitch and not thought we can win a game of football, no matter what anyone says or thinks. We go out there and try to win every game. Sometimes you come up against teams who are better than you, and sometimes you meet teams who get lucky and beat you, and that’s football.
As captain, though, I’ve been telling the players that we cannot think about other clubs or the league table because we’re the only ones who can do it for ourselves on the pitch. If we win games, things will take care of themselves, and we need to fight only for ourselves and each other when we step onto the pitch today, and give it everything we’ve got.
Forest is a massive game and we know the magnitude of it after not picking up the results we’ve wanted so far this season. We’ve put ourselves in the position where almost every game is must-win. I know I and the lads are trying to stay as focused and level-headed as possible and tackle the job at hand.
