Defenders praise West Ham shape and performance against Huddersfield
West Ham defenders Jose Fonte and Pablo Zabaleta both enjoyed the win over Huddersfield on Monday.
As you can expect, the mood around West Ham feels a little better with some points on the board. Although the problems are not all completely sorted, the fact the defence grabbed a clean sheet was great news. The new shape definitely had something to do with that.
As such new signing Pablo Zabaleta and January recruit Jose Fonte were all smiles when they spoke to the club’s official website. Zabaleta relished the wingback role, whilst Fonte looked far more comfortable in a back three.
"“A clean sheet was massive,” Fonte confirmed. “As a defender, it’s the worst possible feeling conceding three or four goals every game. It’s unbelievable.“We managed to keep a clean sheet, we felt safe and secure with the system we played. It worked well when we used this system last year and, in this game, the manager reverted to last year and it was very successful."
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A Hint at future formation?
You may have noticed that Fonte pointed out that the back five had a large amount of success last season. With the team leaking goals in the opening three games it may be that Bilic wants to move back to this. If he does he will require Zabaleta to play as a wing back more often, which the Argentine relished:
"“We needed a performance like that as defenders, because in the last three games we conceded ten goals. That wasn’t good enough, so I’m very happy with the performance overall. The whole team did great."