Tuesday, October 05, 2010

McMahon Looking For Hammers Response

John McMahon is looking for an instant response from his players against West Ham United at Prenton Park tonight after their below par showing at Chelsea last week.

The 3-1 defeat at Cobham left the reserves boss furious and he is hoping his team will show their true colours tonight in a match you can watch exclusively live on LFC TV online from 7pm.

"We certainly will be looking for a response because we were very disappointed with our overall performance against Chelsea," McMahon told Liverpoolfc.tv.

"We gave them too much respect and too much time on the ball. We have got some good players in our team but we just didn't perform on the day.

"The main thing the lads will have learnt from that in the future is how not to approach games. Having the right mentality going into games is very important. We went into the Chelsea game with the wrong mentality.

"I let the lads know that performance was not acceptable and we showed a much better attitude and spirit in the second half."

The Hammers' second string arrive at Prenton Park with a talented squad made up from the acclaimed West Ham production line that has produced players in the calibre of our own Joe Cole and Glen Johnson.

Meanwhile, McMahon will be without several of his usual squad tonight as Jonjo Shelvey, Andre Wisdom and Michael Ngoo are away with England U19s, Chris Mavinga is with France U19s and Danny Wilson is away with Scotland U21s.

"This will be another good game for us as you want to really test yourselves against different teams and players," he added.

"We will have several senior players from Melwood playing so it will be a good balance with the younger lads.

"West Ham are renowned for producing good footballers so whatever team they put out this will be a tough game for us, but hopefully we can come out winners."

Leading the line for Liverpool tonight will be Nathan Eccleston and McMahon has praised the 19-year-old for showing great courage and determination after he was devastated when he missed a penalty in the shoot-out against Northampton.

"Nathan Eccleston has shown a great attitude and he's a good lad," he added.

"He took the penalty miss personally and that would have hurt him because he felt he let everybody and the fans down.

"That will make him a better player and a stronger person in the future. He's a confident lad and he's got lots of ability."

McMahon also revealed the likes of Academy starlets Conor Coady, Toni Silva and Raheem Sterling could make the step up to the reserve squad at some point this season.

"I think they could get an opportunity at reserve level this season - they are certainly good enough," he said.

"I have regular discussions with Rodolfo Borrell, Pep Segura and Frank McParland about the players and it's about using them at the right time and for the right games.

"We are not pushing them too early at the wrong time. We will monitor the players properly and then push them at the right times.

"We have several very good players in the U18 team and we are excited about the future."

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