West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has jumped to the defence of new signing Zaza, who has yet to find the back of the net for the Hammers this season, reports ClubCall.
The 25-year-old moved to the London Stadium from Italian giants Juventus in a loan deal worth £5 million, yet he has yet to live up to expectation since moving to East London.
The Italian forward has started three times in the Premier League so far this campaign, yet his manager Bilic has backed him to find his feet in England sooner rather than later, and has likened Zaza’s plight to that of Arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp.
He said: ‘He is definitely a good player who came from a big club to a new country. New players need time.
‘If we go back and think about Dennis Bergkamp, who needed – I don’t know – a year? It is quite common with even the best players from abroad.
‘Plus, Zaza wasn’t a regular there and didn’t have match fitness. It takes time sometimes and unfortunately we don’t have that time.’
Bilic is right that West Ham don’t have too much time, and Hammers fans will be hoping that Zaza acclimatises to the top-flight quickly in the next few weeks in a bid to drag them away from the bottom three.
Bilic’s men have made a poor start to the new season, winning just one of their opening seven matches and losing five of the other six, and currently find themselves 18th in the table.
However, if Zaza goes on to replicate the same sort of form Bergkamp did for Arsenal, then West Ham will have no problems avoiding relegation.
