Another game. Another West Ham win and another Jesse Lingard goal. But this time it was against the all-action machine, Leeds United.
On Monday night, the Manchester United loanee scored from a rebound after his spot-kick was saved during West Ham’s 2-0 win against Leeds.
Lingard admitted to Sky Sports after the match that his run into the penalty area, which won West Ham the spot-kick, was the ‘only time’ he was able to get on the ball.
As Lingard shared, he is someone who likes to ‘commit’ players, but clearly, Leeds weren’t enabling him enough time on the ball to cause havoc even though what he did was enough.
Nonetheless, with Declan Rice taking West Ham’s previous spot-kick, it was Lingard who stepped up this time, and even though he didn’t directly score from six-yards out, he did share what was said between him and the West Ham captain prior to his penalty.
“We started slow,” said Lingard. “We didn’t feel we were confident when we had the ball. We scored the goals and got the three points but if we want to push on and push for the top four then we have to do better.
“I like to commit players. When I have time and space on the ball then I like to drive and get in the box and try and make things happen.
“That was probably the only time and the only moment I had to do that and it paid off.
“He was just saying ‘do you want to take it?’ and he said ‘Are you confident to take it?’ And I said ‘yes, of course’.
“I have been doing well in recent games and it was good to score today.”
Leeds will, of course, look towards the VAR calls which were made before West Ham could open the scoring, but in truth, the East London outfit deserved all three points.
Whilst Marcelo Bielsa’s side should have scored, they weren’t clinical and calm enough in the final third to well and truly hurt this Champions League-chasing outfit.
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