Exclusive: Bilic facing backroom staff questions

Slaven Bilic – having publicly criticised the lack of the intensity of players in training – may now be forced into shake- up of his backroom staff.

Whilst the manager is responsible for tactics, formation, man management, team selection and identifying transfer targets, he relies heavily on first team coach Edin Turzic and his No 2 Nicola Jurcevic to carry out his training brief on a  day to day basis.

Big questions have also been raised about the team’s fitness and the role of 69 year old Milijenk Rak, a former Croatian former long-jumper, who once worked as the trainer for the Croatia national handball team before joining Bilic as a fitness trainer!

Julian Dicks’ as assistant coach has little input on the routines on a daily basis and is another who may come under the microscope.

The issues involved following the manager’s “lack of intensity ” interview on BT Sports were being freely mentioned around the club last night as several key insiders asked the same question: “Then what’s to be done about the issues at Rush Green.”

Bilic had said: “I have to be honest and say we don’t have that intensity like we did last season. We don’t even have it on the training ground.”

That brought horrified gasps from some and ClaretandHugh was told today it posed questions over his choice of backroom  staff and that it was time for  questions to be asked of them and a shake-up conducted if things were as bad as he appears to have suggested.

If Slaven had hoped to shock the players by his comments they may well backfire and instead create a probe among those responsible for what happens on the training ground.