Declan Rice riles up a section of West Ham fans it seems with his interview comments after suffering defeat against Brighton.
Some saw the loss to the Seagulls as West Ham hitting a new low when it came to performance levels and David Moyes ain’t happy with what he’s seeing either.
The Hammers’ form has massively dipped since last November, with the exception of some memorable Europa League nights.
West Ham fans were so unimpressed with the game against Graham Potter’s side that they booed their own players off at half time and then again at full time.
A number of those inside the ground left for the exits early, dismayed, feeling pain every time the away end goaded the hosts with cheers of ‘ole’ as Brighton passed the ball for fun.
It’s fair to say Declan Rice has started the season slow and played his worst game for West Ham against Brighton.
He was criticised by some fans on Twitter, accusing him and others of going through the motions in their latest defeat.
After the game, a bit of the Rice interview was uploaded, one bit shows the captain saying ‘We’re not Man City’.
While some supporters didn’t find any issue with it, others thought it came across unambitious, defeatist and indicative of a negative mindset in a team, a side that have picked up just three league wins since February.
“Obviously the booing is tough to hear, you know,” Rice said after the game.
“Because we’re not Man City, let’s be real. We’re not going to win the Premier League but what we’ve done the last two years is obviously (raise) the expectations of the fans.
“And we expect that of ourselves.”
— Sam (@SamSk31) August 21, 2022
David Moyes said he was “concerned” by his side’s start to the campaign.
“We’ve not quite got everything in place,” he said. “Hopefully our quality will show through in the coming weeks.”
To say alarm bells were ringing would be “too strong”, Moyes added. “We finished seventh, then sixth, and we take positives from that. We’ve lost a wee bit. We need to get away from that position.
“Last year we were one of the top goalscorers. But we are struggling a bit for goals. We’re aware we are not as free-flowing as we have been.
“I am concerned, but also I’m having to bed people in.”
West Ham have produced 38 shots in their opening three league games without scoring a goal, making a mockery of their goal of the month for August.
As mentioned, Declan Rice riles up some West Ham fans with his interview comments after defeat against Brighton, this is what was said…
@SamSk31: Saying “we’re not Man City” is just a cop out after putting in poor performances, don’t like the vibe he’s giving off here at all
@BaileyS200210: To be fair tho Sam, we are not Man City and we’re not gonna win the league 🤣🤣 that shouldn’t come as a surprise
@SamSk31: Still not the right thing to say for me, everyone’s gonna have a different opinion though
@CockneyMuslimWH: We should be saying. “Why can’t we do a Leicester”
@AISean66: That’s poor from Declan. A lot on his shoulders being captain at such a young age.
@whulorn: I understand his point, but we can still lose that 2-0, but if they actually looked like they were trying, the fans wouldn’t have booed. Like he said, 2 great years, so why shouldn’t we be upset when they’re playing as shadows of themselves?
@whufclew: don’t wanna slate declan as he’s been nothing but a blessing for us but as a captain you can’t be saying stuff like this, alot to learn as a leader still
@madwhu: When you say the booing is tuff to hear just think how tuff it was for us to watch that today , it was like watching tennis when we attack , left then right then back Moyes sort it out ⚒⚒⚒
@daledwhu: Spot on, no quickness, always prioritising passion over releasing a player. No risk no reward. And even when we do pass it around if we get closed down we huff it long! At least try and attack while their teams out of shape!
@EdgeEdg84072792: You should go out with the attitude that you can beat anyone. Last season we beat Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea and City in the cup. Game 1 against City this season set the trend – sat off, did not press and surrendered. We are too easy to play against.
@TyrPenders: He’s supposed to be our captain, he can’t come out with comments like that.
@dazza7370: @_DeclanRice what the fans do expect is a good work ethic. Yes we know it’s tough in premier league but todays performance was unacceptable. Chance to put the faith back in he fans next week at villa.
@Kylos_Tomo32: Not bashing Dec because we all know what a player he is and will be but this is poor mentality. Clearly haven’t been good enough today. Brighton worked harder even at 2 up and in the last 10 mins. No excuse.
@ndidiXR_25: He’d fit right in under brendan Rodgers, it’s not about winning every week it’s about giving the required effort to be the best you can & he just refused to accept reasonable criticism
@B_Roachy: In the nicest way, we should be booing that performance. You can’t use the last 2 years as an reason to not be booed, that’s in the past and we should be now continuing to push on however so far we are by a mile the worst team in the league
@Sam6WHU: No we’re not Man City but there’s a certain thing us fans will always ask for.. that is giving your all on that pitch! To have a go.. most of the team fell way short of that today.
@darylwhu: Fans pay their money to support the team. Every right to call out an underperforming side when they see one, in my opinion. It’s not Under 9s football. Instead of crying about some boo’s step it up a gear (collectively).
@BigCraigDawson: There’s a line between calling out and to literally detrimenting a players confidence. People just expect them to be robots and play well regardless of how they’re being treated 😂 like how can soucek genuienly play well when everytime he touches the ball people groan
@Heydawro: This is where you earn you corn as captain, he still has a lot to learn.
@MarkWHUFC88: I’m sorry but that’s such a poor interview from Rice….. You wouldn’t of heard @Noble16Mark make comments like that.
@TheJoeSteward1: Seems a shift for the worse and much weaker mentality within the squad, poor form this from @_DeclanRice. Lost that hard to beat, never say die mentality we had in the first part of last season, never recovered.
@Nick__Price: So where do you think we’ll finish, Dec? Top 10? Well, three games, no points and no goals is relegation form and the fans responded to another poor performance. Just saying
@DannyCormack: You can fucking run at pace though is that too much to ask
@Kiitez: Terrible mentality
@slzpacked: he and they could at least look like they want to play. we can lose with dignity or lose how we did today. “we’re not Man City” is just an excuse. Leicester wasn’t either.
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