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Manuel Pellegrini favourite describes change that West Ham aim to utilise vs Crystal Palace – report

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Declan Rice has told the West Ham United official website that the Hammers went back to basics against Liverpool following the Hammers’ poor run of results, and hopes the team can maintain their levels in Saturday’s trip to Crystal Palace.

When West Ham hosted the title-chasing Merseyside outfit on Monday night, Manuel Pellegrini’s men went into the game without a win in three and were humbled by their opposition in each of those ties.

To get results back on track the Chilean looked to spark life into his side by getting them back to basics, Rice revealed, with a focus on wanting it more than their opponent.

“The players said after the Wolves game we needed to sort things out and watch the Wolves game back and see the problems we were creating and what we weren’t doing and on Monday night we changed things around,” claimed Rice.

“We talked about working harder off the ball, defending set pieces, just the basics really, which we didn’t do in the previous three games when the other team wanted it more than we did and won.

“Against Liverpool, we wanted it more than they did and we fought and got a point.”

The former Republic of Ireland youth international, who is still yet to commit his future to either the Boys in Green or England, is hopeful that the boost the team received from drawing against Liverpool will carry over into the weekend and help the Hammers beat Crystal Palace on Saturday.

“If we go out there with the same attitude and desire, and with Marko [Arnautovic] back as well, we’re looking good and looking fit and we’re going to go out there on Saturday and try to get the three points.

“After a performance like Monday night, the spirit is always going to be massive. It’s always been there but, to be honest, after the January we’ve had and losing all those games, we all had a meeting with each other and said ‘we need to pull our fingers out because it’s not West Ham, they’re not the results we want’”.

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