West Ham United defender Pablo Zabaleta has claimed that all at the club knew that the Hammers would take time to adapt to the new brand of football under Manuel Pellegrini.
The east Londoners suffered a disastrous start to their Premier League campaign under the new manager after losing four of their opening games.
However, a win against Everton at Goodison Park proved to be the turning point and the Hammers have lost just two of their last seven league games ahead of the trip to Huddersfield Town on Saturday.
West Ham climbed to 13th in the table following their impressive 4-2 win over Burnley last Saturday and Zabaleta, who captained the side on the day, went on to claim that the Hammers knew the team would take time to adapt to the new style.
"It’s true we didn’t have the best start to the season because we had at least seven or eight new players and to change into a new style always takes a bit of time, but it was all about confidence”, Zabaleta told the club’s official website.
“It was a tough beginning of the season when we lost four games in a row, but then that win against Everton showed us that we have got enough quality to play good football and this is the only way for the manager to play.
“He believes in this and, if you look at all the teams he has been working with, it was quite similar to Saturday – always an attacking team, whether you play at home or away, against any team.
“We were creating chances in every game and we just needed to be more clinical and take our chances and we did that on Saturday.”
Zabaleta is expected to lead West Ham again on Saturday due to the absence of Mark Noble, who picked up a straight red card during the 1-1 draw with Leicester City last month.
