Sam Allardyce has labelled Saturday’s Premier League meeting with Norwich City as a must-win six-pointer.
The Hammers manager believes it’s games like these – against teams lower than you in the table – that are more important to win that the ones against teams against you.
And with the club having won just one of their last six league games, Allardyce insists beatings Norwich is important for how the season will shape up for his side.
He told whufc.com: “It’s a six pointer, I would say.
“It’s always been important to me across the board for many, many years because these are the games that if you play your best then you’ve got a really good chance to win.
“These are the bigger games for us, these are the games that you have to be at your best because it will give you a better chance of winning that against the big boys.”
Allardyce also admitted that the only complaint he has so far this season is the lack of goals in his Hammers side and that the side’s current position in 15th does not reflect the good performances so far this season.
“We’ve had many performances as good as the one against Tottenham this year and we’ve had better, like the one against Newcastle, but we haven’t won,” he said.
“We haven’t got the rewards we deserved, we know that and we’ve got to try and improve on it. That’s the only area that’s concerning me and hopefully we’ll put that right on Saturday.
“When you’re in control of the game or you’ve made the chances that we have, we all know that in the Barclays Premier League you’ve got to make sure you take them.”
And Allardyce also insisted that Winston Reid‘s absence with an ankle injury, which he picked up on international duty earlier this week, is less of a blow now that James Collins has recovered from his injury.
“James Collins is fit and James being the replacement is a big bonus for us,” he added
“The injury is a shame for us because Winston has been one of our most consistent defenders since we’ve been back in the Barclays Premier League.”
