Ryan confident of positive reaction against West Ham

Maty Ryan says that Albion can use last Tuesday’s defeat to AFC Bournemouth as perfect motivation to take into Saturday’s game with West Ham United at the London Stadium.

Alex Stedman

2020-01-29T07:00:00Z

Maty Ryan issues instructions to his teammates.

The Seagulls head to the capital looking to register their first Premier League win of the year at a venue where two previous Premier League games have yielded four points.

He said, “Every week is a big game for one reason or another, and obviously if you look at the table then you can see why Saturday is another of those.

“We’ve had a few tough results recently that mean we’re now in a battle down in that area of the table, but it’s a challenge we’re all looking forward to.

“I felt like we had control against Bournemouth last week and Neal [Maupay] was obviously denied by a great save from their goalkeeper. If that had gone in then it could quite easily have been a different game.

“But we didn’t deal with how the match unfolded after that and we enabled them to be more clinical. That’s the way this sport is sometimes. We need to learn from those experiences and take them into this weekend.

“If we do that then I have no doubt that we will give a better performance and sustain what we want to be doing for longer periods in the match to get a good result.”

Maty Ryan on the training pitch.

The Australian also spoke about the bravery necessary to implement the side’s style of play this term, even when they are under pressure to get results, and praised his teammates for the application they have shown to carry out a passing game.

“The style takes courage, there have been a lot of changes this season that have been well-documented,” he added. “We’ve managed to stick with that through thick and thin thus far, and I think that speaks volumes for the principles that we want to instil here.

“Teams can easily revert back to previous ways when things aren’t going well, but life and football are a matter of learning and growing and at this level you need to be consistent as you can with performances.

“At times we have done, but on other occasions we’ve learnt the hard way that you can get punished when we don’t – that’s the challenge for us all the time. Come this weekend we will use the last game as motivation to deliver a more sustained performance to get a result.”

Aaron Mooy and Maty Ryan.

Last Friday, Ryan’s compatriot Aaron Mooy signed a three-and-a-half-year deal with the club, and the goalkeeper hailed the impact his fellow Australian has had since making the switch from Huddersfield Town at the start of the season.

“It’s fully deserved, he’s done great since he came in and been a pivotal player for the squad, as I knew he would,” said Ryan.

“I’ve seen first-hand what he possesses as a player and what he can bring to a team. We saw another glimpse of that with his goal last Tuesday, it was just a shame that the circumstances of the match meant it didn’t count for anything.

“If he gets a start this Saturday hopefully he can make another contribution to a better result. He seems to be enjoying life down here and I’m sure he’ll carry on helping the side.”