Fornals admits he still needs to adapt to English football

Spanish playmaker Pablo Fornals admits West Ham have yet to see the best of him.

Fornals has been slow to adapt to life in the Premier League following his £24million summer switch from Villarreal.

The 23-year-old has found the net just once in 16 appearances for his new club, against Newport in the Carabao Cup.

However, in the last two matches Fornals set up Aaron Cresswell’s winner against Chelsea and was the best of an ordinary bunch in the midweek loss at Wolves.

Fornals will now be looking to show more glimpses of his talent when the Hammers host Arsenal on Monday night.

He said: “This league is unbelievable. Many people say that this is the best league in the world but you don’t truly understand that until you feel and experience it.

“All of the stadiums are full and our fans are incredible and follow us around the country to any place. The intensity and strength of the league is very different to Spain, and I am loving the experience of it.

“In Spain I played in a different role, but I love it here and understand that it takes time to adapt to a new country. I need to continue working and adapting to play better.

“My strength and power needs to improve. This league is so physical and I know I need to improve these things.

“I also need to adapt to the speed of play and the power of opposition teams and understand the referees are also different here to how they are in Spain.”

The 2-0 defeat at Molineux left West Ham just a point above the relegation zone and Fornals knows they need to bounce back against an Arsenal side struggling for form themselves.

“The confidence is good,” he added. “Against Wolves there were some good moments to the performance.

“Obviously, we lost which is disappointing but we need to learn from the result and continue working to improve and get a good result on Monday.

“We believe in what we are trying to do and are capable of getting a result in every match we play. We will compete every day to improve and be a better team.”

FourFourTwo Staff

FourFourTwo was launched in 1994 on the back of a World Cup that England hadn’t even qualified for. It was an act of madness… but it somehow worked out. Our mission is to offer our intelligent, international audience access to the game’s biggest names, insightful analysis... and a bit of a giggle. We unashamedly love this game and we hope that our coverage reflects that.