The manager gives his thoughts ahead of Saturday's visit of Swansea City
Slaven Bilic faced the media on Friday ahead of the weekend visit of Swansea City in the Barclays Premier League.
With the Hammers still in the hunt for a European place, the manager spoke of the importance of the game and revealed his team news, with an enforced change to be made between the posts.
Can we start with team news for the weekend please?
SB: “The team news is that we have one player injured, and that’s Adrian. He felt his calf after the West Brom game and he reported it the day after. Unfortunately he will be out of the Swansea game, and probably miss the last two games as well. Maybe he will be okay, you never know, but that’s the situation – he’s the only one injured.”
You’ve got an able deputy in Darren Randolph…
SB: “We’ve got a great deputy. Whenever we’ve needed him – at the beginning of the season when Adrian had a red card and in the FA Cup – he’s stepped in and been brilliant. He was one of the biggest reasons we went quite far in the FA Cup. He was great at Man U away, very good at home against them, brilliant against Liverpool home and away. We are happy to have him, he’s a great goalkeeper basically."
With the Hammers still in the hunt for a European place, the manager spoke of the importance of the game and revealed his team news, with an enforced change to be made between the posts.
Can we start with team news for the weekend please?
SB: “The team news is that we have one player injured, and that’s Adrian. He felt his calf after the West Brom game and he reported it the day after. Unfortunately he will be out of the Swansea game, and probably miss the last two games as well. Maybe he will be okay, you never know, but that’s the situation – he’s the only one injured.”
You’ve got an able deputy in Darren Randolph…
SB: “We’ve got a great deputy. Whenever we’ve needed him – at the beginning of the season when Adrian had a red card and in the FA Cup – he’s stepped in and been brilliant. He was one of the biggest reasons we went quite far in the FA Cup. He was great at Man U away, very good at home against them, brilliant against Liverpool home and away. We are happy to have him, he’s a great goalkeeper basically."
Three games to go and still in with a chance of a top four finish. Has that surprised you? Have you surprised yourselves to be in this position?
SB: “Yes and no. We were always approaching the season optimistically and it was our job to try and make a good team that plays well and wins as many games as possible. I hoped for that and in one way expected it. Let’s say we are doing well and that’s what we set our wishes and goals for. Those goals are still high and we are really happy and grateful that with three games to go we are in competition for a European place, whether you’re talking about top four which is quite hard but possible, or top six.
“We have to be on top of our game in all three of these matches as there are a couple of teams below us that are capable of winning their games, like we are, and the gap is not so big. We need to collect as many points as possible to keep that gap.”
As you approach the final games at Upton Park – these will be emotional games. Is it a challenge for you to tell the players to detach the emotion from the actual games?
SB: “To be fair we don’t think about the Man Utd game [yet]. We have three games to go, but I have told the guys we have one game, and it’s really like that. We have one game, and that’s against Swansea. On Saturday it’s a very dangerous game and we have to be really only concentrated on that one, otherwise the couple of games after won’t be so important for us. We spoke a few moments ago about our position, so basically we have one game. We need to be totally focused on that, not thinking about Man Utd, not thinking about Stoke, not thinking about the last game ever at the Boleyn Ground. Only Swansea, Swansea, Swansea, it’s a massive game.”
SB: “Yes and no. We were always approaching the season optimistically and it was our job to try and make a good team that plays well and wins as many games as possible. I hoped for that and in one way expected it. Let’s say we are doing well and that’s what we set our wishes and goals for. Those goals are still high and we are really happy and grateful that with three games to go we are in competition for a European place, whether you’re talking about top four which is quite hard but possible, or top six.
“We have to be on top of our game in all three of these matches as there are a couple of teams below us that are capable of winning their games, like we are, and the gap is not so big. We need to collect as many points as possible to keep that gap.”
As you approach the final games at Upton Park – these will be emotional games. Is it a challenge for you to tell the players to detach the emotion from the actual games?
SB: “To be fair we don’t think about the Man Utd game [yet]. We have three games to go, but I have told the guys we have one game, and it’s really like that. We have one game, and that’s against Swansea. On Saturday it’s a very dangerous game and we have to be really only concentrated on that one, otherwise the couple of games after won’t be so important for us. We spoke a few moments ago about our position, so basically we have one game. We need to be totally focused on that, not thinking about Man Utd, not thinking about Stoke, not thinking about the last game ever at the Boleyn Ground. Only Swansea, Swansea, Swansea, it’s a massive game.”