Bilic admits poor Hammers are hurting
Slaven Bilic admitted the buck stops with him after West Ham plunged further into crisis with yesterday’s 3-0 home defeat by Southampton.
The Hammers are in the bottom three after four straight Premier League defeats, with 14 goals conceded.
Even captain Mark Noble branded their defending “laughable” after Charlie Austin, Dusan Tadic and James Ward-Prowse condemned West Ham to their worst start to a season since 2002, when they went on to be relegated.
Manager Bilic said: “That’s not a good sign. It hurts me as a manager and it hurts the team. It’s my responsibility, it’s my team, I know how it works and I’m not running away.
“These are the same players, and the same manager, as last year and everything that was really good last year is bad this season and everything that was average last season is now way below par.
“The season has only started, it’s true, but it’s happened for four games now and we have to change it big time.
“I told the players after we lost to West Brom that there is no need to panic, the credit was there for a lot of them. But now that credit is gone.”
Noble pulled no punches, saying: “If I’m honest, it could have been six in the end. On the bright side, I don’t think it can get any worse. We’ve conceded 11 in three games and it’s laughable. It’s not good enough. We know that.”
Austin tucked in Ryan Ber- trand’s 40th-minute cutback for a fifth goal in four games.
He then set up Tadic to hit the second, and sub WardProwse added a late third to give Saints a fourth straight victory in all competitions.
Boss Claude Puel said: “In the second half, we could see a team and players with a good quality level and we created manychances.
“It was important for the team that Charlie scored with his first chance. This is a striker with confidence.”