Angelo's World

ogbonna

 

In the first of a brand new feature on whufc.com, we start a regular column with Hammers defender Angelo Ogbonna where we go behind-the-scenes with our Italian central defender.

Ogbonna will share his views on life both inside and outside the camp and will give his honest opinions on all the matters that count.

In the first blog, the 28-year-old reflects on his first call-up by new Italy coach Giampiero Ventura and is excited to see his Italian team-mate Simone Zaza arrive at the Hammers....

Hello everyone,

This has been a busy couple of weeks having joined up with the Italy squad for our friendly against France last week and our first World Cup Qualifier against Israel.

I really enjoyed meeting up with the squad again as it was the first time since the Euro Finals and we now have a new manager.

I already knew him having played under him at Torino and he played me in some big games.

I know it was only a friendly but we were very disappointed to lose the first game against France.

It was the first match for the manager and he didn't have a long time to change the tactics.

I got the chance to speak with Dimitri after the game and I was really happy to see him again.

There has been a lot of change so it was even more important for us to win the first World Cup qualification game when we travelled to Israel.

Thankfully we managed to come away with a 3-1 victory and we hope to build on this result and have a good qualification campaign.

ogbonna726
I am now back in England and training hard ahead of our next game against Watford on Saturday.

I obviously know the Watford manager Walter Mazzarri as he managed Napoli and Inter Milan.

Italian coaches are very focused on the match and the tactics so we have to be prepared and I am sure our manager will be fully prepared for this game.

We know it is going to be a tough match as Mazzarri has managed to bring in a lot of international players like Pereyra and Okaka and they already have the likes of Britos and Behrami. They have a very good team.

But we are back at home and it is very important that we get back to winning ways following the defeat against Manchester City.

We have to send out a message that we are back and we are over the last two defeats. Everyone was disappointed about the last two results and we all want to change that.

I am looking forward to teaming up with my Italian team-mate Simone Zaza for the first time this weekend.

I know our fans will get behind him and he will relish that type of support. It will hopefully motivate him to show his best form and we all know the qualities he will bring to the side.

Zaza is one of the best strikers and we have an international forward coming into the squad that can help us challenge with the other teams.

We will also have Dimi back in action and he has just come back from injury. He went to play for the national team and we need to give him some time.

We have had a lot of injuries at the start of the season but now we are happy to see Dimi and Lanzini back in action.

It is very important for us to get another victory at our new home. The atmosphere has been fantastic and the crowd have been amazing.

We have got nearly 60,000 fans which is double the number we had last season and it is unbelievable for us to see that when we go on the pitch. Hopefully we can give them another victory on Saturday.

Enjoy the game.