Hammers fan favourite Pablo Fornals explains the reasons behind his sudden drop off at West Ham but now he’s back at just the right time.
A couple of months ago had you asked any West Ham fan to name the club’s best player this season, Fornals would have been in the mix.
West Ham’s beloved Spanish Cockney – or Cockney Carzola as he is also known to many – was in supreme form as the Hammers put together a long unbeaten run leading into that momentum killing November international break.
But his form – much like the team’s – seriously dipped in the ensuing months and Fornals found himself out of the starting XI.
It coincided with Fornals welcoming his first child into the world but many West Ham fans were alarmed by the midfielder’s loss of form.
Now Fornals has explained the reasons behind his sudden drop off at West Ham in an interview with The Telegraph.
But he’s back in form and the team at just the right time with Said Benrahma away at AFCON and Moyes’s squad impacted by injuries and Covid as they go in search of a fifth straight win.
Pablo Fornals explains the reasons behind his sudden drop off at West Ham but now he’s back at just the right time
“I’m a guy who loves his wife and I just wanted to make it easier for her as well (by changing my sleeping pattern),” Fornals told The Telegraph when discussing his dip.
“This thing (having a baby) has changed me as a person, as a player, in everything. You have another thing to fight for.
“And you want to be a good example, you want to try always to give your best face because your child is going to learn from you. He’s another Spanish Cockney, he’s not proper Cockney yet.
“So I’m trying to be as good as I can in all aspects of my life. It’s a big change. It’s not been easy. I’ve been playing less but that’s because I had to adapt into this new thing in our lives.
“Now I’m feeling really well, feeling like before – or better than before because I have another thing to fight for. I’m really happy to recover my best shape.”
Fornals also recently tested positive for Covid but says he was asymptomatic. Even so he took himself away from his family to isolate and was forced to train in his room for over a week.
It just goes to show you never know what is going on in a player’s life behind the scenes.
And it is refreshing to hear such candour from the West Ham man.
Some of his play in the wins over Leeds and Norwich was superb. If he can continue to show his best then it will seriously boost West Ham’s hopes of a top four finish.