“It was the players who changed the game around,” said Bilic afterwards. “We can talk about what I said at half-time but then you could ask me what I said before the game for us to play that badly."
First of all, give it a rest about the managers Dave.....
Secondly, clearly neither yourself or Mr Gold wanted to spend 30m in transfers back then (which Slaven asked for), you've recently admitted that relegation changed your outlook on things, I'm assuming that doing things on the "cheap" is pretty much out of the question now, although I appreciate the finances were difficult.
Fact is, you ended up paying out 30m to help balance the books after relegation, so you coughed it up another way, but probably put the club at greater risk, there again who knows if Slaven would've made a go of it (I think he would).
An excellent article, thanks for posting it. One of my favourite bits
His demanding work ethic can be a shock to players – especially, interestingly, those in the Premier League with Bilic saying it is a “myth” that it is physically “more intense” than other leagues. “The only thing that is different in the English way is that they train less than in Europe,” Bilic says.
I think that after the last 7 games unbeaten Slav can take a lot of credit. While we drew 5 , not to lose any was a real feat IMO .. To lose virtually your 5 best players or at least guaranteed squad place players and not get beat shows a lot of grit and determination and we coped the best we could in that position. Back to back wins are just rewards for recent efforts. It's been a great season so far and I'm loving our new manager... It's like a breath of fresh air and we have moved on from the good position he took over the club in. May it continue for a long time.. ;ok
So, for comparison, we also had 32 points from 20 games last season, also with a GD of +7. We were 7th overall.
From the corresponding fixtures, we had 26 points, compared to 32 this season.
So I think it's fair to say Slav has at least repeated the feat of the first half of last season. You could even point to the corresponding games comparison and say he has done even better.
The question is, can he do what we couldn't do last season and continue this run of consistency and have us finish in that top 7/8? Maybe even 6th? I certainly back us to do better than 3 wins in 18.
What has surprised me is that I expected him to be a bit more intense. I thought he'd be a bit PDC-ish, look to blame refs, get angry quickly, say controversial things. But he is very calm. Still passionate and animated, but very composed.
Arsenal 0-2 West Ham Liverpool 0-3 West Ham Man City 1-2 West Ham West Ham 2-1 Chelsea Man Utd 0-0 West Ham West Ham 2-0 Liverpool
16 points from those 6 games is incredible.
Yes but that's one side of the story
Out of home games v Leicester, Stoke, Norwich, Bournemouth and west brom we have picked up 3 points. That's the season it has been - and not just for us - plenty of other sides have been turning over the so called big guns this season.
Comments
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/35190370
He was definitely feeling the pressure.
With regards Slav, he says all the right stuff, brutally honest.
Wonder if the Ogbonna sub earlier in the season played a part in his thinking.
Secondly, clearly neither yourself or Mr Gold wanted to spend 30m in transfers back then (which Slaven asked for), you've recently admitted that relegation changed your outlook on things, I'm assuming that doing things on the "cheap" is pretty much out of the question now, although I appreciate the finances were difficult.
Fact is, you ended up paying out 30m to help balance the books after relegation, so you coughed it up another way, but probably put the club at greater risk, there again who knows if Slaven would've made a go of it (I think he would).
His demanding work ethic can be a shock to players – especially, interestingly, those in the Premier League with Bilic saying it is a “myth” that it is physically “more intense” than other leagues.
“The only thing that is different in the English way is that they train less than in Europe,” Bilic says.
While we drew 5 , not to lose any was a real feat IMO ..
To lose virtually your 5 best players or at least guaranteed squad place players and not get beat shows a lot of grit and determination and we coped the best we could in that position.
Back to back wins are just rewards for recent efforts.
It's been a great season so far and I'm loving our new manager...
It's like a breath of fresh air and we have moved on from the good position he took over the club in.
May it continue for a long time.. ;ok
From the corresponding fixtures, we had 26 points, compared to 32 this season.
So I think it's fair to say Slav has at least repeated the feat of the first half of last season. You could even point to the corresponding games comparison and say he has done even better.
The question is, can he do what we couldn't do last season and continue this run of consistency and have us finish in that top 7/8? Maybe even 6th? I certainly back us to do better than 3 wins in 18.
Liverpool 0-3 West Ham
Man City 1-2 West Ham
West Ham 2-1 Chelsea
Man Utd 0-0 West Ham
West Ham 2-0 Liverpool
16 points from those 6 games is incredible.
What has surprised me is that I expected him to be a bit more intense. I thought he'd be a bit PDC-ish, look to blame refs, get angry quickly, say controversial things. But he is very calm. Still passionate and animated, but very composed.
Out of home games v Leicester, Stoke, Norwich, Bournemouth and west brom we have picked up 3 points. That's the season it has been - and not just for us - plenty of other sides have been turning over the so called big guns this season.