Sam Allardyce has admitted his side must improve defensively against an impressive Swansea side this Saturday if they are to get back to winning ways.
The Hammers are currently enduring a torrid time on the pitch, having won just three games in their last 14 Premier League outings and have not won since New Year’s Day.
And Allardyce believes his side need to be at their very best when they host Swansea this weekend and wants his defence to take a leaf out of The Swans’ book from now until the end of the season.
He told whufc.com: “We’ve got to get back to being defensively solid as a unit. If you look at the team we are playing on Saturday, the reason they’re so successful is contrary to what you all think, it’s because they have the best defensive record in the league.
“When they score a goal they win a game of football and they don’t concede many, in fact they hardly concede any. They’re in top form.
“From our point of view, I don’t think we’ve had a clean sheet since West Bromwich Albion away [December 16] and because of that we have not managed to secure the wins we wanted to.”
Allardyce also admitted that the players are concerned with their recent form but puts that mainly down to the volume of injuries the squad suffered over the festive period.
“We’re very concerned at this moment in time. We’ve only take five points out of the last eight games, which we all know isn’t good enough,” he added.
“We started the season absolutely brilliantly and the rest of the season had been going very will until the injuries hit and once the injuries hit, it devastated the team at the time and we’ve suffered in terms of results.”
