West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has dismissed Troy Deeney’s claims that Dimitri Payet’s rabona cross was meant to embarrass Watford during the Hammers’ 4-2 defeat at the London Stadium last weekend.
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The Hammers boss backed his players despite criticism from Watford’s Troy Deeney who claimed last week that their overly-flamboyant display had inspired the Hornets to come back from two goals down to win 4-2.
“It doesn’t bother me if someone does a rabona pass and it ends up in a goal”.
“We spoke before the game and knew we were facing a really good team, we expected a tough game and we were right”.
“It is good for the confidence and the crowd”. “It takes time to adjust – it is a different stadium and we love our new home”.
I think we might see a positive reaction from West Ham’s players after they collapsed from 2-0 up to lose 4-2 at home to Watford last week.
But Bilic is not prepared to use that as a mitigating factor for some poor performances that leave West Ham just one place above the relegation places going into Saturday’s game away to West Brom.
“It was not a good performance last week”.
“We have to defend better, like we have in other games this season, and like we did last season”.
“I don’t like excuses”, he said.
The Senegal midfielder has admitted West Ham’s second-half display against Watford fell below the standards the players expect from themselves but has reassured fans similar mistakes will not be repeated in the future. “I didn’t notice [the crowd problems] until I was told after the game and it didn’t affect my concentration during the game, so I’m sure that the players didn’t notice it”.
“We are a team, we defend together and I’m happy with that”.
“We work on that”.
“I would of course like it sorting out. We have won just one game from four but we have a great squad and we’ve signed some good players”. “We want them to feel good and make them happy with our results and the club wants them to feel safe in our stadium”.
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Michail Antonio has scored a league-high 10 headed goals since the start of last season. “I have a big respect for Tony Pulis and the job he does every year”.
