Bilic calls for a Noble attitude
SLAVEN BILIC will send his players into the Colosseum that will be Selhurst Park today calling for his troops to become senators.
In a game that will be crucial to the Croatian’s future as West Ham boss – he could face the sack if his side suffer a sixth league defeat in their opening 10 games against bottom club Crystal Palace – “emperor” Bilic launched into Latin as he tried to fire up his legionaries.
Bilic saw the gloom around his club lifted by Wednesday night’s remarkable comeback from two goals down to beat Tottenham 3-2 in the Carabao Cup at Wembley.
The match featured a true captain’s performance from the recalled Mark Noble, whose refusal to accept defeat inspired his team. Bilic called for more of the same. He said: “Mental strength is the most important thing in situations like this. That’s why you need senators in your team.
“Mark Noble has that. He is the captain that loves to be the captain. He is Mr West Ham, has been all his life, and is, how they say in Latin, ‘primus inter pares’ – first among equals.
“When he had that clash with Danny Rose, was it a coincidence or was it more important than the first goal? Nobody knows. Maybe it helped.”
Noble’s flare-up with Rose (over how the ball was returned to play after an injury) occurred just before Andre Ayew’s first goal and fired up West Ham.
Bilic said: “We have enough of them, captains of their national teams, who won major trophies with their national teams or with previous clubs. We have a good mixture of them and young players who will hopefully achieve what their colleagues have achieved.”
The West Ham manager said it had been crucial for his players that he had stayed fully behind them during the bad times this season, in particular after the dismal 3-0 defeat by Brighton last week that again plunged him into crisis, with speculation over his future.
Bilic said: “You have your principles and you have to make the players believe in you. And if you stay behind them in the bad times then they feel trust. It’s your biggest job.”
Bilic will keep Noble in the team after leaving him out for the last two league games, but will recall Michail Antonio if he recovers from bruised ribs.
Meanwhile, Palace have indicated already they are prepared to be big players in the January transfer window. Manager Roy Hodgson said: “The only honest and fair answer to whether we’ll be in the market is... we will spend in January. “I think we have a group of players who will be good enough to keep us in the league but to be really sure we need some reinforcements, because the squad doesn’t go down anywhere near far enough to give me the options I’d like. “Since Dougie Freedman was brought in as technical director, he has been working on that, meeting our scouting set-up and starting to collate information. “He then intends to sit down with me and the owners and see what it is possible to do. It will be an important transfer window for us. “But there will be others in the market, probably half a dozen or so club like us, staring at the abyss that is relegation these days. “The pressures are always on as a manager – it’s an enormous responsibility because a lot of money is involved. I’ll have to deal with that. “But I don’t see players who no longer want to wear the shirt, nor do I have any bad experiences of players having the wrong attitude. All I worry about is ‘have we enough on the field to beat who we’re up against?’ ” With Palace having one win and just two goals to their credit in the League this term, Hodgson will discover the answer to that from 3pm today.