West Ham defender Angelo Ogbonna says they can be happy with their draw against Liverpool last weekend.
Ogbonna insists they can be proud of the result.
I'm very, very glad as Saturday was very important to come and play better than last week at Crystal Palace, because we know we were a little bit out of energy," he told whufc.com. Everyone knows the previous Thursday against Bayer Leverkusen was an unbelievable night. We didn't get through, but we gave everything on the pitch and most of the lads were a little bit tired in terms of intensity.
But we showed we can cope even with a team like Liverpool. We tried our best from the first minute and I think the goal for Jarrod was really deserved. We conceded but we've been a little bit unlucky and the reaction was there and this is the way we play and this is the way West Ham play.
I'm totally against when people say we are a team who just sit back, because we showed we can go on the front foot, we can press them and we can have energy. Of course, sometimes we run out of energy and, to be honest, it wasn't easy this year because we played Sunday/Thursday and the time to recover for the lads wasn't totally easy. Even for the lads who were not playing, to come into the team and try to have the condition to play, it's not easy, but we will never complain.
It's a little bit harsh, saying that West Ham did bad this season. We managed to stay up in the table, we nearly beat Bayer Leverkusen, so people need to understand the process and the process has been unbelievable. Of course, expectation is high, but you can't click your finger and you want to change tomorrow. You need to just respect the process.
If you look at Liverpool, they won something after five years, not after one year since the manager came in. We won something three years after the manager came in, and who expected that? Who said West Ham could win the Conference League? Who said West Ham could go in the semi-finals of the Europa League? No-one. It's a totally different West Ham. As a human being, everyone wants more, but you need to understand people that work here have given everything in the transition to try to change things. We have got international players and now we're standing and everyone knows West Ham around the world. This, I think is a very, very, very, very good result and a great build-up."
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