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Eddie B 11:50 Fri Sep 16
Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

The home defeat by Watford was a big disappointment for everyone but we have to learn and move on. We have had a couple of meetings since then and they have both been productive. Last season, we did well and I believe we can at least emulate that this time.

It is also natural that, because of where we finished in the Premier League, plus the move to our new home, expectations have risen.

If we think, though, that we can win any game just because we moved stadiums or because we did well last season, then it is a big mistake.

I don’t think that sort of attitude started with the players but it was reflected in the performance against Watford and we have to eradicate that immediately.

We have to get back that edge – that hunger we showed throughout last season. A defeat such as that last weekend can be — should be — a turning point for us. We have to react.

Okay, we can, we will, lose other games but not in the way it happened against Watford.

You can find excuses for anything in your life. When I was late for an appointment today I could find excuses but I didn’t feel good about it. I’m going to try not to be late again.

Yes, I want us to play attractive football and to entertain our supporters but that is the cherry on top of the cake. What we must not forget is what helped us to the point of having praise heaped upon us last season and — for some of the players — new contracts.

What brought us all the good things were basics, like running for each other, defending as a team, playing all the time like it is the last minute of the final game of your life.

That is what we must remember and that is what we have to do again.

What gives me hope and belief is that we did it last season. I’m not showing them videos of Atletico Madrid and saying, ‘listen, you should be playing like these guys’.

Okay, we have done it for some of the time this season but you have to do it all the time. That is what serious football at this level is all about — to do it minute after minute, day after day, week after week. That is the key.

Then, when we are doing that, we can try rabona after rabona.

Yes, we could hypothetically score some spectacular goals from free-kicks in every match but if we defend like we did against Watford, we will still lose.

I’m expecting a big-time response tomorrow at West Brom. We have to dig in and, if we do that, I fear no-one.

One thing more on the match. I didn’t moan after the Chelsea game, where Diego Costa could have been sent off, or against Manchester City, where Sergio Aguero could have been dealt with similarly.

I’m not moaning now, either, but under the change of rules, explained to us before the season started, when the long ball was played upfield by Watford, three of their players were offside by a long way.

The goal should have been disallowed had the rule been interpreted correctly and I am convinced it would have been a totally different game.

Yes, we played badly on the day and we still could have lost, but that goal should not have counted.

It is a surprise to me that no one picked that up in the hours and days after the match.

Private Dancer 10:50 Sun Sep 18
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

Private Dancer 7:48 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

Stop spouting bollocks, soundbites and promises that you can't keep in the rags and do your talking on the pitch, Slav. Very fucking simple. The question is, how big are your balls? Can you do it? Tomorrrow we will find out''

13 Brentford Rd 10:48 Sun Sep 18
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

YEP just as I and many said about this DRIVEL......

TALK is CHEAP!

East Auckland Hammer 12:05 Sat Sep 17
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

While I agree with most of what Bilic says, talk is cheap.

We NEED a performance tonight, and then again against Accrington, and Southampton next week to really allay the fans fears.

bowboy 12:02 Sat Sep 17
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

You have to laugh, Vexed calling someone else a shitcunt.

Texas Iron 11:54 Sat Sep 17
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

Amocs...

...never knew the difference between FACTS...and OPINIONS...

Haha...

Hasans Fish Bar RIP 11:04 Sat Sep 17
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

Amocs was a top man.

David L 10:10 Sat Sep 17
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

I remember posting on ITBS during the Grant season after Christmas and said that we were already relegated, to which that busy fat cunt Amocs came back in his usual bombastic manner saying that no team ever got relegated in January. Still, that wanker has disappeared now so not all bad news

Texas Iron 2:07 Sat Sep 17
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

Bilic.
Boring...repetitive platitudes...Far too long...verbal diarrhea...

Get a grip man...sort it out before it's too late...!!!

11MDE 10:24 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

Well, Tom Chaplin has a new album out by then and Lily Allen hit the top spot at Xmas with Somewhere Only We Know, so anything is possible.

Sven Roeder 10:20 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

And Keane to have the Christmas no.1

11MDE 10:17 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

He'll be gone by Christmas. Can see Hiddink or Mancini being in charge.

mentor 8:39 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

I can'tell even read this shit. I've lost patience with him.

stomper 8:37 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

Private Dancer 7:48 Fri Sep 16

I'm willing to bet that Slaven could give Buster Gonad a run for his money on the balls front

Sven Roeder 8:29 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

Lanzini has always been a hard working player and Payet has to do his bit even if it isn't chasing back into our half.
We were disorganised in midfield and ponderous in defence.
Bilic has to make up his mind about how his defensive midfielders work. Either decide to use Nordviedt or Obiang or sort out how Kouyate and Noble work.
Whatever he does tomorrow we need to work a hell of a lot harder and be harder to play against.
Plus he needs to leave wastes of space like Tore & Calleri off the bench. Neither of them is going to change anything.

Lertie Button 8:19 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

We've not been defending well as a team - we just can't afford the luxury of 3 non defenders (Zaza, Lanzini and Payet) in the team.
Add to that how badly the central midfielders and central defenders are playing, small wonder we have been so rank bad so far.

Sven Roeder 8:11 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

He has a contract to do a column in the Evening Standard
I am sure there are weeks when he'd rather not do it like this one.
We were rubbish last week but it was the first start for Payet, Lanzini & Zaza who all needed the run.
Am sure a few have got a kick up the arse this week and we will see the reaction tomorrow. Or not.

Private Dancer 7:48 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

Stop spouting bollocks, soundbites and promises that you can't keep in the rags and do your talking on the pitch, Slav. Very fucking simple. The question is, how big are your balls? Can you do it? Tomorrrow we will find out.

Sir Alf 7:32 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

We are still waiting for a good striker. Zaza might be that man although early signs were not good, Calleri cannot seem to finish very well in his few outings, Sakho is always injured and developed attitude and Carroll is never going to be fit on a regular basis. Oh and Ayew got broken first game in.

Then there is the perennial defensive midfield problem that remains to be solved. We do not work hard enough as a team and no one seems to be a natural deep lying midfielder and the ones we have (Obiang and Nordveit) have never convinced although the Viking has only played a few games. He did look a little more promising against Bournemouth but still seemed off the pace. Perhaps understandable?

Bilic is supposedly a student of NBA master coach Phil Jackson or at least I have read that a few times? If so, he will understand the importance of what the Septics call "transition" when moving from defence to attack and back again to defence. It seems this is at theheart of our problem. Is it coaching or is it recruitment of players that are better at getting back as soon as we lose it? Is it that we are still struggling to keep possession with the likes of Collins, Reid and Kouyate being the worst offenders when it comes to passing?

Probably all of the above and more.

Time to earn your managerial stripes Slav

tnb 7:23 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

Infidel,

Can't argue with that assessment. To me the root of it all seems to be the midfield not getting a grip on games, and it's happened almost every time out so far this season - even in the first half an hour against Watford, for all the champagne attacking play they were still able to burst through the middle of the park almost at will and could easily have had a goal or two earlier than they did, offside or not. As soon as they realised that, and we let up on our intensity in pushing them back and worrying them a touch, we were picked off all too easily.

I very much doubt Bilic is telling the team to play long balls, and he sure as hell isn't telling them to defend like a bunch of numpties, but it all stems from a lack of balance in the middle. Our defence gets besieged, and then when we dp get hold of the ball either the midfield aren't in the right positions to show for it or the defence have lost all confidence in them to retain the ball (probably a mix of both) and so it gets punted long more often than not, which more often than not results in the ball getting lost anyway and invites more pressure....rinse and repeat, until as we saw at the end against Watford everyone just loses all composure and we end up wandering around looking like strangers. I said after Watford that the end of that game really reminded me of the Southampton home drubbing under Allardyce at a similar point of the season and I really didn't expect to be making that comparison.

One way or another, we need to find a solution to the balance in central midfield. I sense Bilic recognised this issue over the summer and bought Nortveidt to be the answer but if so then he needs to back his judgement. I have a sense that a 4-3-2-1 with Payet and Lanzini as the wide players and Nortveidt sitting behind Noble and Kouyate may have been the thinking behind the insistence of persevering with Antonio at right back, but now some difficult decisions are looming. He clearly doesn't fancy Obiang, so if Nortveidt isn't the answer then I'm a bit stumped as to who/ what is.

If we are to stick with 2 in the middle then it may well mean one of Noble or Kouyate dropping out if they can't figure out a discipline between them. One thing is for sure though, it needs to improve soon.

Infidel 6:40 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

Southampton won their Europa league game last night. We should have been in Europe too but we weren't in the mix because we got turned over by a pub team in the qualifiers.

Then three defeats in four games to start the premier league season - and let's be honest about the Bournemouth game, it was a late winner and we almost conceded at the death. We scraped it.

More to the point, we haven't played a decent 90 minutes for a very long time. We have been poor in every recent game.

We give the ball away cheaply, we hoof it upfield too often and we defend poorly.

So yes we should all be worried. We have no fluency, no shape and no confidence. We are easy to play against.

Worst of all we have only one goal threat, which is Antonio's head at the far post, without which we would be sunk. How long before other teams figure out that if you nullify Antonio then West Ham can't score?

This is a good squad - good enough to win big games. But Bilic needs to earn his money and get them playing properly or we will be at the wrong end of the table come Christmas.

62Hammer 6:33 Fri Sep 16
Re: Bilic article in today's Evening Standard

Looks like Sam Allardyce isn't the only one who doesn't know what the West Ham way is - in part, it's screwing up just when everyone thinks things are going to go well. We've always done that. And probably things will get better and this bad spell will become a distant memory - until the next time.
It's been like this as long as I can remember in my 54 years of supporting West Ham. I'm happy with it, as long as we still get enough highs to go with the lows.

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