Pablo Fornals and his West Ham United teammates are determined to hit their early season heights once again as the 2021/22 campaign reaches its business end.
The Hammers had to be content with a point from Saturday’s London Stadium meeting with Newcastle United, as the Magpies’ Joe Willock cancelled out Craig Dawson’s opener in a closely contested game.
While the east Londoners blew Newcastle away when they met on the opening day of the campaign, they struggled a little for fluency this time around and Fornals says the team are hard at work on the training pitch to make those corrections.
The Spain midfielder did point out that the Irons have retained their resilience in this part of the season, with Saturday’s draw meaning they have lost only two of their last ten outings in all competitions.
For Fornals, that gives his side plenty to build on ahead of a crucial three months at home and abroad.
“I don’t think we can accept a point as a result,” he admitted. “We should win, but in the end better one point than none.
“I thought we played a bit better than we did against Leicester, but obviously it’s very difficult when you concede a goal close to the end of the first half.
“That makes it a bit tougher to come back but I thought we did really well, had chances to the end and proposed for the whole game how we want to play.
“We are playing a bit different to the first part of the season, all we have to do is fix it and try to improve together as a team.
“I think we improved from Leicester but it wasn’t enough to get the three points.”
West Ham are still fighting on three fronts as we enter the Spring and Fornals says that can only add motivation for the challenges to come.
“It has been intense and not many of the guys have played European competitions before,” he continued. “We have done well in the two cups too, so it’s many games but we have really good players and the whole squad is committed for everything.
“I think it’s most important to keep taking points and still pass rounds in the other competitions.
“We are the first ones who want to fly everytime, who want to be fighting with the teams at the top, but all of this is new for every one of us.
“It’s a process and I can say this, and this is a truth, that we’re not losing games, so the thing is all of us are disappointed [in recent performances], but at the end of the day it’s better to go home with one point that without.”