Slaven Bilic is expecting his side to return to their previous high standards when Everton visit on Saturday
Slaven Bilic believes his side will have learned a valuable lesson from last Saturday’s defeat to Watford as they seek to put things right when Everton visit the Boleyn Ground on Saturday.
The West Ham United manager felt his side were not in the ‘red zone’ at Vicarage Road and as such the hosts ran out deserved winners after scoring two goals without reply. Bilic believes his players will now appreciate more than ever that they cannot take their foot off the pedal for any Premier League game.
“We showed that we can play against so called lesser opposition like Palace, Newcastle and parts of the games against Sunderland, Bournemouth and Leicester,” Bilic said. “Those teams do the ‘dirty work’ better than the big teams so you have to work more against them than you do against someone like Manchester City.
“Manchester City will beat you with class but someone like Watford are better at the ‘dirty work’ than them so you need to match them and that is something we did not do on Saturday. We were nowhere what is required to win those kind of games.
“You are going to lose game as it is the Premier League. Apart from the first ten minutes, when Watford approached us with a lot of respect, and we had a lot of the ball.
“But when they smelt that we were not penetrating them enough and a lot of our movement and passing was backwards then they smelt the opportunity to come up and go with us.
“But we have learnt that lesson now and I see no reason why we should not come back the way we played before. Number one thing we have to do is run together as a team, do the dirty work and win second balls. If we are like that then we have a chance against any team.”
Demonstrating typical honesty, Bilic explained that he had made clear to his team that he will not accept a drop in effort, particularly with his former side Everton visiting the Boleyn on Saturday.
“It was a collective bad day against Watford. We beat Chelsea and all last week I spent more time talking about how we should stay grounded but we definitely we didn’t have that five per cent in the red zone and if you are like that and unlucky then you have no chance.
“So I told the guys this is unacceptable. It happened and let’s at least make sure it does not happen again.”
Finally, Bilic offered his support for Andy Carroll, whose mistake allowed Nathan Ake to set up Odion Ighalo for the Hornets’ opener. His fellow striker Diafra Sakho missed the game with a thigh strain and his manager is hoping he will be fit to return to the matchday squad for the visit of Everton.
“Andy came back because it was a free kick for it and he took the wrong decision by taking a risk in that area. It cost us big time but we didn’t lose because of that.
“We missed Sakho up front and he was one of those players who has that kind of energy and he is the man who is pressing up front, although Andy was very brave. So he was missed and I hope he is going to be back for Everton.”
The West Ham United manager felt his side were not in the ‘red zone’ at Vicarage Road and as such the hosts ran out deserved winners after scoring two goals without reply. Bilic believes his players will now appreciate more than ever that they cannot take their foot off the pedal for any Premier League game.
“We showed that we can play against so called lesser opposition like Palace, Newcastle and parts of the games against Sunderland, Bournemouth and Leicester,” Bilic said. “Those teams do the ‘dirty work’ better than the big teams so you have to work more against them than you do against someone like Manchester City.
“Manchester City will beat you with class but someone like Watford are better at the ‘dirty work’ than them so you need to match them and that is something we did not do on Saturday. We were nowhere what is required to win those kind of games.
“You are going to lose game as it is the Premier League. Apart from the first ten minutes, when Watford approached us with a lot of respect, and we had a lot of the ball.
“But when they smelt that we were not penetrating them enough and a lot of our movement and passing was backwards then they smelt the opportunity to come up and go with us.
“But we have learnt that lesson now and I see no reason why we should not come back the way we played before. Number one thing we have to do is run together as a team, do the dirty work and win second balls. If we are like that then we have a chance against any team.”
Demonstrating typical honesty, Bilic explained that he had made clear to his team that he will not accept a drop in effort, particularly with his former side Everton visiting the Boleyn on Saturday.
“It was a collective bad day against Watford. We beat Chelsea and all last week I spent more time talking about how we should stay grounded but we definitely we didn’t have that five per cent in the red zone and if you are like that and unlucky then you have no chance.
“So I told the guys this is unacceptable. It happened and let’s at least make sure it does not happen again.”
Finally, Bilic offered his support for Andy Carroll, whose mistake allowed Nathan Ake to set up Odion Ighalo for the Hornets’ opener. His fellow striker Diafra Sakho missed the game with a thigh strain and his manager is hoping he will be fit to return to the matchday squad for the visit of Everton.
“Andy came back because it was a free kick for it and he took the wrong decision by taking a risk in that area. It cost us big time but we didn’t lose because of that.
“We missed Sakho up front and he was one of those players who has that kind of energy and he is the man who is pressing up front, although Andy was very brave. So he was missed and I hope he is going to be back for Everton.”