West Ham United captain Declan Rice says the players tried their best despite losing 4-0 to Brighton and Hove Albion but just couldn’t work out their style of play. The Hammers were soundly beaten at the Amex on Saturday afternoon due to goals from Alexis Mac Allister, Joel Veltman, Kaoru Mitoma and Danny Welbeck. West Ham were unable to work out Brighton and their ‘unique’ way of playing according to Rice, who attempted to reassure fans that he and team-mates were ‘fighting for the badge’ during the loss.
Declan Rice said: “They have a unique way of playing and we didn’t work it out. To be out there was demoralising. To try and defend, seeing them keep the ball. I got a yellow card, could have got another one. I never want to feel like that on a football pitch. I’d never step on the pitch and allow the opposition to have more passion than me and it’s the same for the others. We’re wearing the shirt of West Ham and the one thing that matters is fighting for the badge. Maybe it didn’t look like we did as we lost 4-0 but I can assure you we tried as best as we could but we were beaten by the better team.”