Bilic losing his edge as woes go on
SLAvEN BILIC was as civilised as ever, conceding Newcastle’s superiority and stating his responsibility as manager, ‘to be confident and to believe, in good times and bad’.
As he did so, you wondered about the competitive edge he must have once displayed as an international defender. You wanted to see him a little more eaten up by this wretched defeat.
West Ham’s tally of Premier League goals shipped ratchets up to 94 in 51 games, and there are no signs that the defensive reinforcements are going to shore up the leaky structure. Joe Hart is not sending confidence coursing through the rearguard. At 32, Pablo Zabaleta is well beyond that stage when he can change a great deal.
Bilic has selected four different central defensive pairings for his side’s opening games and he does not seem to know what his backline should be.
There is some mitigation for the manager, whose injury problems are not negligible. Diafra Sakho has barely played in two years. Andy Carroll is not 100 per cent. Winston Reid was missed. Manuel Lanzini’s own recovery from injury led to 18-year-old Declan Rice helping to hold midfield. But Newcastle hunted the teenager down, mugging him for their opening goal.
Bilic is venturing into the foothills of that place from which a manager’s position is unrecoverable. There had been crumbs of comfort to take from last week’s defeat by Southampton. But ‘this is different, this is worrying,’ Bilic said, honest to a fault.