West Ham United boss Slaven Bilic has made something of a bizarre admission about his own tactics.
The Hammers have recovered after a dreadful start to the season with back-to-back clean sheets securing four points, enough to lift them out of the relegation zone.
A 2-0 win over Huddersfield and 0-0 draw at West Bromwich Albion were down to hard work rather than freeflowing flair football.
And many pundits and supporters have questioned where the club are heading long term under Bilic’s tutelage with no discernible identity or style to their game.
Supporters idolise Andy Carroll and fully appreciate what he brings to the team but also accept that the big Geordie dictates the side must play a certain brand of football to get the best out of him.
But they will be frustrated at somewhat bizarre comments from the man they expect to outwit opposing managers after Bilic admitted on the club’s official website he knowingly played into West Brom’s hands at the weekend.
“Andy is always a threat and he was good in the air and also with stopping the balls and laying it off to the flanks,” Bilic told whufc.com.
“We put a lot of balls in where he couldn’t find a position to get a clean header, which is also down to West Brom, because they are known to defend well from those situations.”
Bilic’s honesty is admirable.
But if the manager – like any supporter who has seen the Baggies play – knew playing high balls into the box would make life easier for West Brom, then why do it?
It raises questions over the Croatian’s tactical acumen and with the likes of Diafra Sakho and Marko Arnautovic on the bench Bilic could have attacked the West Brom defence using pace and skill instead.
And perhaps it would have secured a confidence boosting second win in a row.
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