West Ham: Sam Allardyce wants defensive improvement

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce says his side must improve defensively after twice having to come from behind to rescue a 2-2 draw at Hull City.

An Enner Valencia stunner and a Curtis Davies own goal cancelled out strikes from Abel Hernandez and former Hammer Mo Diame.

West Ham have conceded in every game this season, and Allardyce said: "That is something we have to think about.

"Attractive football is OK, but you need to have that defensive unit too."

Ecuador international Enner Valencia scored his first goal for West Ham to level after Abel Hernandez's opener

Last season, West Ham's 13th-place finish was built on a decent defence as they kept 14 clean sheets in 38 Premier League games.

But Allardyce was keen to strengthen his firepower in the summer, bringing in Ecuador international Valencia, and the striker - making his first league start at Hull - caught the eye with a long-range strike, his first goal for the club.

"It stunned the whole ground - the place went silent," said Allardyce.

"It was that good a goal but it was very important to get back in the game.

"We then took control for long periods and we had one or two chances to score but then we gifted them the second."

Hull City manager Steve Bruce is also implementing changes at the Tigers, having brought in attacking, flair players like Uruguay striker Abel Hernandez, Gaston Ramirez on loan from Southampton and Hatem Ben Arfa from Newcastle, also on loan.

All three played against West Ham, with Hernandez marking his debut with a precise header to open the scoring.

He had only started training with Hull on Sunday, having received international clearance to play a few days before.

"Hernandez has been waiting for two weeks," said Bruce.

"He has been away in Japan and South Korea [with Uruguay] and he was stuck in Rome for the past couple of days waiting for his passport.

"But he was full of life in training and that was what made my mind up - seeing the way he was, so I thought just throw him in. Both he and Mo Diame had wonderful debuts.

"It was an open, end-to-end game and all credit to West Ham, they played some good football.

"Sam and I are going to have a glass of beer now and talk about how we usually don't play like that. We are both usually a lot tighter."