West Ham are in a good place are in a good place physically and mentally, according to striker Niclas Füllkrug.

The Germany International was on fire in claret and blue over pre-season, he scored in his last three matches against Everton, Bournemouth and LOSC Lille. He is eager to get his West Ham career properly kickstarted after an injury hit campaign last time out.

The Hammers ended this pre-season with a Boyle Sports Cup win over Lille. “It was a good day on Saturday,” Füllkrug explained to the clubs Official Website. “I’m very proud of the team. We did a great job and we never gave up.

“We had good mentality, good mindset. The players who came on the pitch, they did a good job. They brought new energy on the pitch. I’m very happy with the team and what we achieved.

“I think late goals is one of my strengths,” he continued, “If you see all my seasons where I scored a lot of goals, I think nearly half of them were after the 75th minute because then I start to get new energy.

“Then I start to get sometimes a little bit angry if it doesn’t go how I want or how we want it as a team. I think when you see the second half, we could have scored already earlier because we had good chances. We created good chances.

“We had very good possession, good moments and we played how we wanted to play. The coach was also very happy with what we did. But then it happened in the 87th or 86th minute and I’m also happy with that.

One of, if not the biggest positive of the pre-season has been the blossoming partnership between Füllkrug and Jarrod Bowen. It’s not the fans really excited to see what it can do in the Premier League.

“I love Jarrod,” our No. 11 said. “I think you can see the link-up is very good. I try to bring the ball to him in his strongest situation, where he can go one-on-one or go in behind.

“You could see also today, I think there were three or four situations where we linked up very well. He tried to do the same for me. Also, when I scored the goal, we worked very well against the ball.

“That’s also important for strikers. We are the defenders, we recognise it too. It’s very important for the team that the defenders see us [that way]. We go for the ball, we defend with them and they help us to score goals. I love this guy. He’s my skipper.

“For us, the most important thing is the team. I think that’s also what changed to the last year.

“We don’t need to speak so much about players, if I score, if Jarrod scores, if Malick assists. We as a team did a great job, everyone. That’s the most important and that’s what the atmosphere is right now on the team.

“It helps us to be successful, for sure.”