Mark Noble has urged his West Ham players to use their ‘common sense’ ahead of this weekend’s clash against Liverpool at the London Stadium.
The Hammers were masters of their own downfall at the weekend during the 2-2 draw against fellow strugglers Crystal Palace, with individual error ultimately costing Slaven Bilic’s side what would have been a vital three points.
At 2-0 up, Angelo Ogbonna first gave away a clumsy penalty which allowed Luka Milivojevic to make it 2-1 from the spot; and then Michail Antonio paid for his own error deep into second half stoppage time, gifting the ball back to Palace and Wilfried Zaha who subsequently scored a dramatic late equaliser to make it a score draw.
This weekend, Noble insists the Hammers cannot do the same if they want to take anything from the fixture.
“You can’t make mistakes like we made at Crystal Palace in the Premier League and expect to win matches, so we really need to learn how to hold onto a lead because we’re really shooting ourselves in the foot,” Noble said. (via Sky Sports)
“People talk about ‘managing the game’ and a lot of it is common sense. We need to be able to see the time out by slowing the play down and, in a way, get the opposition and their fans feeling anxious. I don’t think we have done that well enough this season.”
He continued: “Liverpool at home is a big game – it always is. We’re at home, we’ll have the crowd behind us and we’ve got to roll our sleeves up, look forward to the game and do the basics right.”
