West Ham defender Ben Johnson reflects on gruelling phase
Ben Johnson says the phase between February to March has been “gruelling” for West Ham.
The defender is extremely pleased with the effort from the team, suggesting they’ve done extremely well.
The Hammers lost 3-1 against Tottenham in their last game, but Johnson seems happy with the “immense” performance from the players.
“We’ve had how many games, seven or eight games in March, well from the end of February to March so it’s been a gruelling time and we’ve done extremely well in 95% of the games,” said Johnson to London World.
“And even against Tottenham there were positives to take out of the game despite the defeat so it’s something that the boys will be proud of.
“Some of the work we’ve done this month has been immense and now hopefully we can just recharge and go into the last eight or nine games just firing and feeling fresh to end the season well.”
Stats don’t back up
Johnson has been very impressive on a personal level.
Around mid-February, Vladimir Coufal got injured, and Johnson replaced him in the side.
However, the performances haven’t always earned them the points they desperately needed.
In mid-February, they drew back to back games against Leicester and Newcastle, and managed a victory against Wolves.
In March, they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Southampton. It was followed by defeat against Liverpool.
Although the Hammers managed a 2-1 win over Sevilla in aggregate, which is definitely the highlighting feature, they also lost against Spurs in the London derby.
So, overall, we can’t say that the Hammers have played “extremely well”, but there are signs of positivity.
The Hammers have lost some ground in the race for the top four, but they have progressed to the quarter-final stages of the Europa League.
They will face Everton in their next game after the international break.
In other West Ham news, David Moyes has been impressed by this EFL goalkeeper and wants to sign him in the summer.
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