Lukasz Fabianski said both the players and supporters need to be patient after West Ham United suffered their second straight defeat to start the 2018/19 Premier League season.
The Hammers were beaten 2-1 by AFC Bournemouth on Saturday at London Stadium to leave them without a point after two matches.
With a trip to Arsenal up next and home games with Manchester United and Chelsea before the end of September, West Ham will need to show improvement if they are to begin climbing the standings.
However, with a new manager and coaching staff and nine summer signings to bed in, including goalkeeper Fabianski, the Poland international requested supporters to stick with the team while they put Manuel Pellegrini’s plans into action.
“We have to keep looking forward and keep working with this group of players because obviously there are big changes and it always takes time to gel,” said the No1, who produced a number of fine saves in Saturday’s defeat by Bournemouth. “Hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later.”
If we relax a bit more and take care of the ball a bit better, then we will benefit
Lukasz Fabianski
Manager Pellegrini spoke after Saturday’s game of his team needing to ‘trust’ one another and put previous results out of their minds when they play at London Stadium – and Fabianski agreed, calling for more patience when in possession of the ball.
“From my perspective, every time we had the ball in possession, we just wanted to go straight forward and maybe we have to be more balanced in some situations and take our time a little bit with playing our football and keeping possession, rather than just trying to get it forward,” he observed.
“Maybe that’s what he meant when he said [we didn’t trust ourselves], that when we get possession we need to score. If we relax a bit more and take care of the ball a bit better, then we will benefit.
“We are a new group of players and it will take time, but hopefully it will click soon. I hope the fans will understand the situation and I think they do. It’s important that they are supportive in every single game and keep believing in the team, because this group of players really has something quite good in terms of quality and, with a little more work, we will see the effects on the pitch.”