Feeble performance by team who should be doing so much better results in 4-1 home defeat by Liverpool that provides few signs of any improvement to comeIt was four, it should have been six, it could have been 10. West Ham United have hardly prospered since moving to the London Stadium but, like the thrashing by Arsenal last season or the Friday night thumping by Brighton last month, this was a defeat that will linger like a fish under the floorboards. It truly stank.Slaven Bilic will face questions about his future as manager after this result and rightly so. He has faced such questions before in his two‑and‑a‑half‑year tenure and survived but the naivety, the disorganisation and, by the end, a...
Coach retains fans’ goodwill but the way his side flirted with humiliation against Tottenham was ominous for a man aware of the harsh realities of his professionSlaven Bilic knows how it goes in his line of work. Once a manager is in danger, once the narrative becomes entrenched, it can begin to feel like the long kiss goodbye. “Once that’s opened, then it basically doesn’t stop,” the West Ham manager said after his team’s 3-2 home defeat against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday. “Game by game or two games by two games – it’s the way it is in modern football. Once you open that page …”Bilic turned that page last season, when only a 1-0 win against Spurs with three...
Slaven Bilic’s side will bare their teeth against Spurs on Saturday while grudgingly admitting their rivals’ evolutionary process has its meritsFor West Ham United supporters, the notion their club could do worse than take inspiration from Tottenham Hotspur in their drive to evolve may seem like blasphemy. East End passions are rarely more inflamed than when Tottenham visit and even the London Stadium running track may not douse the atmosphere for Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off.Mauricio Pochettino’s players will be braced for a caustic reception. They have not forgotten how West Ham, hopeless against every other big side in their new home, relished their part in ending Tottenham’s title challenge last season. Related: Marko Arnautovic helps West Ham to easy victory over...
Individual errors at vital moments left West Ham on the wrong end of a 5-0 scoreline against Manchester City and Slaven Bilic looking for a hole to climb intoNowhere in English football does the manager appear more isolated than at the London Stadium. This match had a television audience of millions, a stadium attendance of tens of thousands, a matchday staff in the hundreds, a few dozen players, coaches and physios and beyond them all, standing alone on the touchline with the bench a good 20 yards distant and no one but an occasional passing linesman for company, the two men carrying responsibility for it all. Related: Manchester City cruise past West Ham thanks to David Silva masterclass Related: West...
After five defeats in six league games, Slaven Bilic has problems in all areas of his West Ham side, and he needs more impact from his summer signingsAsked about West Ham United’s failure to kill off Crystal Palace in April, Slaven Bilic pointed out that it is impossible to score three goals in every match. The message was that his team had to become more solid. But little has changed since that 2-2 draw with Alan Pardew’s side at Upton Park. West Ham remain weak defensively and have conceded two or more goals in 15 of their past 23 matches following the 3-0 defeat against Southampton on Sunday, which left a side who challenged for Champions League qualification last season...