Slaven Bilic believes the most nervous of victories – over Hull City yesterday – is the prelude to freer and better football from the Irons.
He admitted that at half time he told the players the only upsides were that it was still 0-0 and “it couldn’t have been any worse.”
But he added: “In the last half-an-hour we stepped up a gear and found ourselves in good positions on the pitch. We were attacking in numbers and defending much better.
“We had a few chances in that time and then scored in the right moment.After that we should have finished the game but we didn’t. It’s a massively important three points for us.
“It is important that we’ve recorded back-to-back wins here at London Stadium. We showed the character and we showed a good last half-hour, but the most important thing out of this game is to win it.
“It was hard to expect flashy football in this period because of the position we are in, but we have climbed the table a bit now.
“We are still there, but we should have much more confidence and be able to play much more freely now after these seven points from three games.”
I agree about the lack of intensity, Bilic definitely viewed that match through Claret & Blue tinted specs. If the David’s want us challenging for top four or even top six imho most things need to change, fitness and conditioning clearly isn’t good enough, their isn’t enough pace in the midfield or forwards, focus and intensity appear absent from most, goalkeeping is adequate at best and we don’t have any punch up front then you can add the system means all too often we are unable to press high up the pitch which means the ball gets stuck in midfield where we aren’t competing due to our immobile captain, which brings us to that question, who should lead the team ?
If only as a matter of mathematical probability that we are likely play better after two truly abysmal games, then I’m inclined to think that Bilic might be right.
It’s the lack of consistency and intensity that bothers me. Hull was set up to play with much more confidence and purpose despite their desperate league position and limited quality. We, on the other hand, started with more or less the same team that took us to within touching distance of the Champions League last season (albeit that we faltered badly towards the end). The manager must take his full share of responsibility for that.
Noble said we could not play any worse when WBA dealt with us. So yes we can play much worse, nothing is impossible with us this season.
He was watching a different game from me. That’s the worst we have been this season. Some one needs to tell the players that pass completion stats are based on your own team, not the other side.
I do not believe that we can play as badly as that again – so, to that extent, Bilic is right, we will play better next time.