Mateus Fernandes has an experienced head on young shoulders.
Still just 21, West Ham United’s Portuguese midfielder speaks with maturity and focus.
At Southampton last season, Fernandes produced consistently good performances in a struggling team, and he intends to draw on everything he learned with the Saints to help the Hammers turn around a difficult start to the season.
Every defeat adds pressure, increases scrutiny and threatens to consume a squad with negativity, but the Portugal U21 captain says he and his teammates simply cannot afford to play with fear.
Instead, Fernandes, who scored his first goal for the Club in Friday’s 2-1 defeat at Leeds United, told West Ham TV he will do all he can to drive the team forward whenever he is on the pitch.
“It’s a very difficult moment for everybody,” he conceded. “We need to be big guys now and show a lot of personality.
“I think we can show more, we need to play more, run more, fight more, everything more. But like I said, it’s a moment, it’s football. We need to work hard in silence.
“I know it’s a difficult moment for the fans as well, but we need to stick together, everybody, to get some points and win the games.
“Last season for me it was the same, and one game can change everything. So we need to focus on our goal, our game, what we can do more, what we need to do more.
“If it’s the training sessions, if it’s the [meeting room], recovery, we don’t need to talk, we need to show it to everybody.
“But I think if you look at the squad, we see a lot of quality, but in the Premier League it’s not about quality, it’s about intensity, it’s about fighting once more and we need to show more. I trust my teammates, we can do it much better and I’m sure we will do much better.”
For Fernandes, belief and trust in oneself and one another will be key to turning the season around.
“I try to look for the positive things,” he explained. “We’re losing but we can score one goal, two goals, we have time. Like I said, in football, things change so quickly.
“So we need to trust the manager, we need to trust our teammates, we need to trust ourselves because it’s about confidence and positive things.”
The one positive thing on Friday at Elland Road was Fernandes’ well-taken header from Jarrod Bowen’s cross - his first goal for the Club - and he again vowed to keep trying everything to help the Hammers climb the table.
“I think it was my first goal with the head in professional football, but we’re not happy about the result, we’re not happy about the performance,” he observed.
“Like I said, it’s a difficult moment for everybody. You need to take some time for thinking about it yourself. Me as well, the last game was not good for me as well. I need to try to go again because if I miss the pass I will try again. It doesn’t matter if I miss, I will try again every time.”
