HAMMER

Fabian wants his team-mates to take hold of the ball

FABIAN BALBUENA has ordered his new West Ham team-mates to start taking control of matches.

The Hammers have lost all four fixtures in a miserable start to the Premier League campaign.

They have been beaten by Liverpool, Bournemouth, Arsenal and, in their last outing before the international break, newly promoted Wolves.

Those four defeats have not made life easy for new boss Manuel Pellegrini who spent £100million in the summer.

And it is not getting any easier, with a trip to Everton today and home games against Chelsea and Manchester United up next.

Paraguayan Balbuena, one of 10 new boys at the London Stadium, arrived from Brazilian side Corinthians for £3.5m and is well aware that things could get worse – much worse – before they get better.

But he is adamant that things will start to improve if his side can get on the ball more.

Balbuena said: “We are not being able to have the possession we’d want to and we need to be better at that.

“If we do get it then we will have more chances to manage the flow of the game and be more dangerous.

“These first few months working with Manuel Pellegrini have been very good.

“We are still learning from his experience and we hope that the work we did throughout the pre-season and what we do now can give us the results.

“Those of us who remained during the international break have worked well.

“We have been working during the week to get a victory against Everton.”

Balbuena is expecting a real battle against a Toffees side that, in contrast to the Hammers, are unbeaten, having won one and drawn three.

But he added: “I have seen several of their matches, they have started quite well. New players arrived who are going through a very good moment, like the Brazilians, and we will have to face them with our weapons and I hope we can be victorious.

“They have good reserve players who can come into the team and do it in the same way as those who are there already.

“But we do not think about that, we try to improve what we have been doing, demonstrate it on the pitch and get good results, which is the most important thing.”

Pellegrini agrees with Balbuena’s assessment that the Hammers are letting teams dominate them too easily.

He said: “We are losing too many balls during the games

— having good possession allows you to rest and the physical work allows you to create space a bit more.

“In defending we are improving a lot, if you compare the first game against Liverpool to the last game we are improving.”

Asked about Balbuena, he said: “He was one of he players I asked to bring here.

“He came from the biggest team in Brazil and knows what it is like when you have to win. That is very important for me.”