Slaven Bilic was relieved to see his Hammers make it back to back wins declaring: “It was a dramatic end.”
He said: “The first 25 minutes it was by far our best 25 minutes, including last season. We were good, sharp, created chances and we deserved to be two up.
“Then they came back. And in the second half they had great chances and were dangerous on the counter attack but in the last 15 minutes we pushed more and we were looking to score.
“I cannot say it was a goal from the training ground. You expect Winston Reid to score a header but it was a great decision to come in on the edge of the box.
“I had a look at the goal, it is extremely difficult for the referee and I would be upset if I played for Sunderland, but it is not offside.
“It is a boost. It was still early days but we had to react. Now we have two wins, two clean sheets, nothing can give you a bigger boost than wins. We have to build on this.”
It’s a relief for most of us.
Agreed. It’s about time Bilic wakes up and drops the
under forming Zaza.
A massive relief : even if we had to wait untill the game was to all intents and purposes , over . A long way to go . But two wins with clean sheets is very encouraging .
Well done to all , because Sunderland was a very very very defensive banana skin .
COYHammers . The LA is about to become our Home at last .
Not too many points separating top six from bottom six , so it’s all to fight for .
I’ll say that Zaza ran hard today but he doesn’t MAKE the runs he needs to. When the play speeds up in the final third, he slows down. He makes some odd decisions (raised foot instead of diving header etc.). I want to like him because I’ve seen him play with quality for other sides but it isn’t happening with us and we can’t afford to keep playing him and end up on the hook for 24 mil. Tony Gale called for Fletcher in the 60th minute on the US broadcast and he’s right. Whenever he’s on he has more ball control and good positioning. He didn’t have enough time to truly impact the game coming on with 10 minutes to play and yet he still showed more potential to score than Zaza. Feghouli and Fernandes looked good for us today and I’d like to see more of them. Obiang was also quality today. But they need some capable strikers making good runs and with good first touches. C’Mon Slav, time to give the young lad a run.
Quite agree US! But the decision that disappointed me the most was bringing Calleri on before Fletch. Sooner Sak is fit the better. He is streets ahead of both Calleri and Zaza and could be an excellent learning foil for Fletch.