Gianfranco Zola is confident his West Ham United side will soon convert their promising displays into winning ones.
After facing two tough matches against Manchester United and Arsenal, Zola takes his squad to the Riverside on Saturday to face Middlesbrough hoping to end a run of four defeats in the Barclays Premier League. Theresults has not overly concerned him as he has seen plenty of positives in recent games and on the training pitches of Chadwell Heath.
Zola said: "The attitude of the players has been fantastic, they've been very unlucky not to get results in the last few games and I am sure this can't go on forever. I have seen situations like this in my past so many times that I am sure it is going to turn up. The players should be pleased as for 75 minutes they played like a great team against Arsenal, one of the best teams in Europe, and that is something they should be proud of."
"The problem would be if we were not creating chances. We are creating them and it's a matter of getting the confidence and putting them way. I have no problems about that. That is what I keep telling the players to keep trying to do the same things and then I'm sure a big result will come. Maybe it is going to be on Saturday, maybe the week after."
Zola, without the suspended Carlton Cole, has named Diego Tristan in his squad for the first time Club captain Lucas Neill and defender James Tomkins will also travel to the north-east, but Valon Behrami will miss out along with Mark Noble (both calf). "We are going to have Lucas Neill and James Tomkins back for selection so that is the good news for us. We do not know yet whether Ilunga and Parker will be available."
The Middlesbrough fixture sees the start of a new month and, Zola hopes, the start of some better fortune for West Ham United. He said: "It has been a tough October and it has been a difficult moment but football is like that - you go through tough patches but you need to carry on, you need to stick to what you are doing and maybe soon we are going to be talking about a different run.
"With this job every day you learn new things. The thing about this game is it is so dynamic. You have to be ready of all the time to face new situations - that is a good lesson that I learnt. So it's my idea about football, it doesn't change by two, three, or four bad results."