West Ham United picked up just their second win of the season against Crystal Palace.
Slaven Bilic has told West Ham United’s official website that the system they were playing over the early part of the season was not the problem.
West Ham utilised a 4-2-3-1 formation during their first seven games this term, but they had little success.
The Hammers won just one of their opening matches before the international break, and Bilic put his team out in a new 3-1-4-2 system against Crystal Palace in their latest match.
The formation change worked, as West Ham won 1-0 at Selhurst Park thanks to a Manuel Lanzini strike.
However, Bilic has defended his tactics over the early part of the campaign, suggesting that West Ham’s win was down to the players rather than the system.
“The system wasn’t the problem in the last few games,” Bilic said. “For me, it wasn’t about the system, even though I could say now ‘Yes, it was the system!’ but it was more about attitude. It wasn’t that we didn’t want it in the last few games, but it was obvious there was a difference.
“Saturday’s win was all about attitude and focus and hunger and resilience and a determination that we were going to do it and we are going to come back.”
West Ham’s victory over Palace has relieved some of the pressure which Bilic was coming under.
The Hammers are currently in 15th place in the Premier League table, with their next match coming against struggling Sunderland at the weekend.
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