Slaven Bilic has told his first team squad to stop treating home games like ‘basketball’ matches.
The Hammers have picked up just one win at Upton Park this season and four on the road with palce joining Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City on the killing floor!
And Bilic said: “We don’t say ‘away we are going to play like this, and at home we are going to play like this.
“But sometimes you have to change.
“We will try to win our home games and maintain our away form, but it’s more that we started sloppily in a couple of home games.
“At home sometimes we are playing like it’s basketball and you have a limit of 24 seconds to finish your move, and you are forcing the situation too early. Away we are a little bit more patient, but at home not patient enough.”
The Selhurst Park victory saw Bilic’s men go fourth in the Premier League and they are now unbeaten in six, but the Croatian is keen not to get carried away.
He stated: “At the club we have no expectations.”
“You can’t stop the fans’ (expectations) – unless you start losing, and that is not what we want.
“But our target is to stay in the league. It’s early days, not late May. Our target is to play good football , to be solid, defend and attack with numbers and keep the ball, score more goals and get more points.
“Where we will finish, I don’t know! But it should be good.”
Football is 99% about momentum and form,last year when we had that and the players were buzzing the manager did not believe he changed back to his way and find comfort in what he knew,we lost that momentum and the players left belief,
This year we have better players who believe and are good enough to go all the way,now we need to jump on that wagon and ride to victory,
Let Big head bring Chelski here wondering how he can beat us,looking not to lose,because of he comes to us and attacks we will destroy his side and his career,
As a fan for life I believe we are now good enough to beat anyone
On our day we can beat anyone for sure bubs,we have already proved it.As a side note i really aint going for all this Noble was taking off to protect him from a booking so he is available for the Chelski game.We have cover for him if he is suspended.Why cant people just accept he was subbed tactically during the match without looking for get out clauses for Noble.I admire the lad a lot but he can still be subbed for other players purely for a tactically switch on the day.
Totally agree Jimmy.Why would you take off your captain with half an hour to go to protect him for the next match when the game he is playing is 1-1.Its bullsh#t.It was tactical,end of story.I have just said the same elsewhere.Why shouodnt the captain come off for tactical reasons,im sure he was ok about it.The result would suggest Slav got it right anyway 😉
Hippo is reaching his potential already one game and down we go,
Noble was all ways going to struggle to keep his place and I for one would pick Obiang before him,
With Chelski next at home we need our front 4 players to be allowed to fun free and for this game we need more than Kouyate defending in front of the defence,
Moses missing is ideal game to let Antonio loose to give us width with Zarate and Carroll as options on the bench,
Being subbed does not mean your career is over it’s just another kick up the rump
I hate to say it, but the tactics worked. We did eventually open up the Palace defence with trademark Carroll header back into the middle from a cross (Zarate) for Lanzini to score…and Carroll replaced Noble. But I do want to see Noble start against Chelsea. Just shows what fantastic depth we have!
don’t think we will lose momentum this year because any injuries in key positions won’t matter as much because of the strength in depth and goals from all positions.
I agree – feels a bit like Man City with a 2nd team that could smash most teams in the Prem. This feels even better than last year at this time when we were making all the noise in the Prem!
Who took over as captain when Noble went off?