West Ham goalkeeper Mads Hermansen spoke to the media following the Hammers' 2-0 victory away at Turf Moor.
After signing in the summer window for a reported fee of around £20 million, there were a lot of expectations surrounding the 25-year-old keeper.
However, after a poor start to his West Ham career, he found himself on the bench.
Despite that, he has stayed professional, even when linked with a move away from the club in January, and Saturday’s performance against Burnley showed why he remains important to the East London club.
Saturday’s 2-0 win was the first time since August that the Hammers have kept a clean sheet.
The last one came when West Ham won 3-0 at Nottingham Forest. Both clean sheets this season have come with Hermansen in goal.
After last week's disappointing 3-2 defeat to Chelsea, West Ham needed to bounce back, and they did exactly that, scoring two first-half goals, to boost their survival hopes.
Crysencio Summerville continued his fine form in goal, making it five goals in five when he chipped the ball over Martin Dúbravka after 13 minutes.
Taty Castellanos then doubled the lead, scoring his first Premier League goal by heading home El Hadji Malick Diouf’s pinpoint cross.
The victory moves West Ham within three points of 17th place Nottingham Forest and eight points clear of 19th place Burnley.
Hermansen spoke on how tough it has been not playing, as well as how good West Ham were as a team against Burnley.
“Perfect day for a goalkeeper, and for me personally to play again. It’s been a long time, hard work and trying to do what I could in training, but lovely to get the chance and happy to get a clean sheet.
“They came with a lot of crosses, early crosses and lucky for me or for us as a team, they were in my area. I think, as a team, I also have to say for Axel [Disasi], it’s amazing for him to come in and do so well after a few days in the club. Together with Dinos [Konstantinos Mavropanos], they were a very good partnership. A very secure, stable performance from the defensive side today.
“It’s tough [not playing]. It’s the first time in my career I’ve experienced being on the bench after a few games. So, of course, it was tough, but also, it’s in those periods where you show who you are as a person and as a football player. I tried to work hard every day, be focused, do what I could to support the team, and it’s nice to get the chance again.
“I love when we score goals. It’s amazing. I think especially our second goal today was absolutely brilliant. So yeah, keep the goals coming.
“As I said before, I think our defensive performance as a team was amazing. Also, Tomáš [Souček] and Mateus [Fernandes] in the midfield really came in the way for a lot and blocked a lot of passes. Overall, very good work. I still think we can push out a little bit more at the end of the game to get pressure on the ball, but of course, after 90 minutes, it’s hard and tough.
West Ham face Manchester United on Tuesday night live on TNT Sports at 20:15 GMT.
The Red Devils are unbeaten in their last eight Premier League games.
“I think we’re on just as good a performance streak [as Manchester United] at the moment. We played really well against Chelsea, even though it was not three points. So, we have to believe in ourselves because we’ve got a lot of good results recently, and yeah, go to win the game.”
