Finally, Slaven Bilic has made the comparison between Messi and Payet!
With the Hammers playmaker supreme on his way back to the action tomorrow, the boss declared: ‘Every big club is suffering if their best player is not playing,’
‘They are not panicking at Barcelona but they are saying Messi is injured they are at least a little bit not happy with that and their roster is unbelievable.
‘Of course they (the best players) make the difference, they are making all the players around them more confident, better and Payet does that for us.’
Bilic is increasingly confident he can start tomorrow saying: ‘He’s definitely going to be in the squad and if he is fit and ready — and I think he will be because we spoke a couple of times during these couple of weeks —he is going to start the game.’
Bilic has also held talks with Michail Antonio to ensure the winger pushes on after his England call-up.
He said: “Knowing him, he’s gonna put the pedal down and try to become a regular. He’s going to do everything. I think it will give him more motivation and more confidence. I told him not to forget which way of training and playing gave him the opportunity to be called into the England squad.’
Try to become a regular ? The bard is in front of feguili and tore ? Payet and lanzini are his playmates as far as I’m concerned ! Feguili will have to wait his turn , its not Antonio’s fault we are out of Europe ! Strange comment that 🙂
The team almost picks itself now,for me its
Adrian
Byram Collins Ogbanna & Masuaku (obviously Cressie when fit)
Noble Kouyate
ANTONIO (every time) Lanzini Payet
Zaza
Bench: Randolph Feghouli Reid Oxford Sahko (when fit !) Calleri Nordveit (just)
Cant really see where Tore Obiang or AC fit in for now only if injuries occur.
COYI
I agree with team for tomorrow, would be surprised if Fletcher isn’t on the bench, makes you realise how tough it will be for Bilic, there is Obiang, Fernandes, Arbelloa etc also how do you pick a bench, the cup games will be huge for us this season, our second 11 could be another prem teams first 11, it is an unbelievably strong squad we have, I hope Bilic rotates them rather than just playing the same 11 week in week out, the African players will be off in January so can use them a bit more, provided we have a good year injury wise and can go deep in the cups we have more than enough to do really well don’t we ?