Good morning everyone,
If you are coming to our game against Watford today, I wish you a safe journey to London Stadium for a match we are all really looking forward to after the international break.
We are back into the Premier League now and we want to pick up some points, as we did in our first home match against Bournemouth
Dimitri Payet is back with us now and should play today. Every team in the world plays better with their best player or players in the team. Every big club suffers if their best player is not playing – even Barcelona now Leo Messi is injured.
That doesn’t mean they, and us, are one-man teams, but the best players make everyone around them more confident and that is what Dimi does for us.
You can certainly expect to see Simone Zaza play today, too. He’s fitting in well. He’s been training with us for a couple of weeks now and he’s showing his quality in training and wants to show that on a big pitch.
Of course we won’t judge him based on one game but on paper and in DVDs and when you talk to him, he has all the qualities that we need from a centre-forward.
He is ready. I have spoken to him and have watched him train and he’s ready but we’re not rushing him as we have three strikers available.
One thing that is for sure and that is he won’t be taking penalties! We have a good penalty taker – a great one – in Mark Noble!
It is a chance for him now to establish himself. We all have to help him concentrate and let this be extra motivation for Michail. I’ve spoken to him and we’ll keep him on his toes all the time and he’s that kind of a lad.
Knowing him, he is going to put the pedal down further and try to become an England regular. I didn’t speak to Big Sam about Michail, but he obviously likes those kind of players who can really hurt the opposition with his running one against one, win his headers when the cross comes in, who can attack and defend; who doesn’t like these players?
I was an international manager for six years and I know how to pick a squad.
Sam doesn’t have any emotional obligations to players who may have, for example, done well six months ago. It was a fresh start and he recognised Michail as a good addition to an already good squad. Michail deserved it, of course.
Today, we face a test against Watford, who have been very active in the last few transfer windows and who are working under a new manager in Walter Mazzarri.
It will not be easy, because no game in the Premier League is, but we have players back and players who are hungry to succeed, so we go into the match confident of picking up the three points.
Come on you Irons!
Slaven Bilic