Slaven Bilic has revealed that James Collins and Pedro Obiang have only resumed training this week so they are likely to start on Saturday against Burnley. Speaking to West Ham TV on Tuesday at Rush Green Slav revealed “Ginge did not start today, he was supposed to today but it should be a matter of days hopefully. Pedro (Obiang) starts today, so we are going to see. We are going to have on paper ninety percent of the squad ready”
He also added that Lanzini and Antonio used the International break to improve their fitness saying:
“Both Manuel and Antonio played part or all of the game against Swansea, but two weeks before that game Antonio didn’t make two training sessions, one after another.
“He needed the fitness to improve, Manuel needed the fitness to improve, and then you’ve got the players coming back like Fernandes. We used this break individually to build their fitness and we trained really hard for the whole of last week.
“They were off for the weekend, and now we have the players like Pedro and Sam coming back to train. They are the reasons why I am optimistic now, that we are going to get better and better.”
He needs to have the team fired up from the start, Burnley are a decent team, if we are not on top form we won’t get anything from the game.
Agree I would like to see Rice back in. He made 1 mistake against Newcastle and was Dropped other then that when played he has been great and will only get better with time and Confidence.
Rice in central midfield if Obiang not fit . If Noble starts we are doomed . Getting worse week on week …he is a disaster . COYI
Obiang has been a doubt before even though he was fit !!!
Its an excuse to play nolegs lol, rice in back 3 or centre mid , the kid never made a mistake , he was overrun by two toons because nobody was there helping him out ffs! Then the ball was passed back to the halfway line before a pass through our static defence that led to the goal !!! Rice was a scapegoat for bilic and captain fantastic ? Who never even had a word in his ear to say it wasn’t you’re fault boy it was others around you that failed you !! The day I lost all respect for bilic , the clueless one , as Frankie Mac said , rabbit in the headlights 😤
Yet again Lazurus you have risen to the occasion . Of course it was not Rice’s fault . He had no support and was caught with the ball . Captain Awful does it time after time and idiots still defend him . As you say Bilic is at fault . He never picks the right team and constantly plays people out of position to acomodate his hapless Captain who , in all truth , should not even be in the squad . COYI