Randolph: We have to Man up... and fast
DARREN RANDOLPH knows how important it is for West Ham to rediscover the confidence they showed last season – and quickly.
They are languishing periously close to the Premier League drop zone, with 11 points from 12 matches. And their next three games are against Manchester United today, Arsenal at home and then Liverpool away.
A far cry from last year when the Hammers harboured ambitions of reaching the top six.
Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Randolph admitted: “When results were going our way last year, we were laughing and joking, even in training. Then we were going into the games at the weekend and winning.
“The confidence was massive and that definitely got us through – and there were probably some performances that shocked everybody.
“The manager has always said not to let that little bit of doubt creep in. Not to lose confidence. He said we are no lesser a team than we were last year. We are still the same set of players in the main. We have shown in patches this season how good we can be.”
And Randolph pointed to the experiences of Chelsea last season to illustrate his case. They started as defending champions and finished in mid-table.
“There is frustration here,” said Randolph. “You look round the dressing room, see the squad we have and we shouldn’t be where we are. But it happens every season to a team. Look at Chelsea last season.
“It is not easy to recognise what it is or that it is easy to fix. It is hard to put your finger on exactly what has gone wrong.
“Maybe we had new players last year and nobody knew about them. But this season they are aware of those players.”
A disappointing sequence of results invariably generates speculation about the future of the manager.
Bilic has not escaped – but Randolph made it clear the Croat has the backing of the players.
“We are 100 per cent behind him,” insisted Randolph.
“There were no problems last year when we were winning games and we are not going to turn our backs on him now. We are all together and there is no issue here with the manager.”
Randolph will be the last line of a defence that will attempt to frustrate Wayne Rooney in his attempt to become the record goalscorer at United.
He is currently on 248 – one behind Sir Bobby Charlton.
And if Rooney scores today?
“To be honest, I don’t care,” said Randolph. “He has been around for I don’t know how long and scored so many goals.
“I don’t care who scores as long as we win. He can shoot as long as he wants. It doesn’t matter to me – as long as we win.
“We know it is going to be a tough game with the players they have, but they need a good result in the league as much as we do.
“They are expected to be up there at the top and there is a lot of pressure on them as well.”