West Ham United fell to a 3-2 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane on Saturday.
Slaven Bilic has defended his decision to take Dimitri Payet off during West Ham United’s match against Tottenham Hotspur, through his comments in the Guardian.
Payet was withdrawn from the field at with five minutes to go, and he was replaced by Havard Nordtveit.
At the time West Ham were looking to hold on to their advantage, and Bilic felt that Nordtveit’s introduction would make them more secure at the back.
However, the substitution did not work out as planned, as West Ham threw away their advantage.
Tottenham ended up scoring two late goals through Harry Kane to steal the three points, with Nordtveit giving away the penalty which led the winner.
Bilic was heavily criticised for the changes that he made after the match by West Ham, but the Croatian boss insists it was a logical decision to bring Nordtveit on.
“We were 2-1 up and from our point of view it was a logical move to put on a fresh body,” Bilic said. “[Payet] was excellent today but we thought: ‘OK, it’s the end of the game, we are winning, let’s hold on.’ I would rather play well, the way we did tonight, than come here after the game and say: ‘No complaints, they were much better.’ When you are playing like this, it is only a matter of time before more luck or more concentration makes the difference.”
West Ham’s defeat to Spurs means that their terrible start to the new campaign has continued.
The Hammers are currently in 17th place in the Premier League table, and they sit just one point above the relegation zone.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
