Slaven Bilic’s smile is firmly back in place after another fine performance from his happy Hammers.
After victory at Middlesbrough the boss said: “It was a good week for us after Palace, the confidence we played with, and we used that momentum to come here and put out a strong performance and get three massive points.
“Week in, week out he (Andy Carroll) is a brilliant player. Not only goals. He makes an impact with his presence. His work rate is quality and he is unbeatable in the box. It is very hard to stop him.
“He loves it. He gives you everything. Hopefully he is going to stay fit.”
Mark Noble was forced to hobble off in the second half and Bilic said: “We have to wait to see the results of a scan, to lose the skipper who is a leader and a mentor in the middle, he keeps the team in shape, it was a blow.
Carroll revealed: “I didn’t train all week and had a couple of days off, so I didn’t want to risk anything.
“I’m all good, looking forward to the next game. The lads played well and the goal at the end to kill the game was fantastic.”
Is that 5 in 10 for Carroll. Doesn’t seem so long ago there were calls to get rid of him. It would be worth checking results with and without him too. But before I get a torrent of abuse, I do realise the issue. We cannot rely on him because he will probably never play more than half the games. Even at 1 in 2 that won’t be enough. And I suppose if you are going to play to hisstrengths you need a similar player as backup? But I think when fit he is a marvellous player & if we had him for 30 games a season we would be fine. If pigs could fly eh?
The injury curse strikes again for Ogbonna. Makes the Fonte transfer even more welcome.
Even better than that, Hammer64, Andy’s scored 5 in 7 starts. Three more appearances as sub make up the ten,
Hmmmm..I would like to his stats since he joined us in 2012 for our % won/lost with him playing or not playing. I always have a gut feeling that we are in with a chance when he plays. Ah well, maybe when our backup striker arrives in the next 10 days it will all be different!