Bilic admits Hammers are still lacking confidence
Slaven Bilic admitted his West Ham players are still lacking in confidence, despite Winston Reid’s late goal against Sunderland securing back-to-back wins.
The Hammers dominated for the first half an hour but failed to transform possession into goals with Dimitri Payet hitting the post before the visitors grew into the game towards the end of the half.
It was more of the same in the second half and just as it looked like the Hammers’ impotency at the London Stadium was set to continue, Reid popped up with a goal to earn the hosts their first home league
win since August.
Bilic insisted his team’s habit of fading in games is not a fitness issue but a mental one, as the players let their heads drop if they fail to score in their dominant spells of games.
“We never lost our energy in training and never lost our faith or belief, we lost our confidence and are still in that situation,” said Bilic.
“After 25 minutes we are flying but suddenly they have the ball for one minute in our half and we are like ‘oh my god’. Then you look like you are not fit enough but you are.
“It’s like ‘oh my god we didn’t score a goal’. We got ourselves in that position.
“No training, no motivation, no analysis can get that [confidence] back as victories can especially two clean sheets, six points and now we have to grab to keep this momentum and to build on it of course.” A visibly dejected David Moyes complained that his side deserved the point and that Reid’s 93rd-minute winner shouldn’t have stood as there was a player in an offside position blocking goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s view.
The defeat leaves Moyes with a record of seven defeats and no victories in nine Premier League games, and leaves Sunderland propping up the table and five points from safety.
“The match official thinks it’s onside, I definitely think it’s offside,” said Moyes.
“You can tell by his reaction because he walked towards the linesman so he was aware there was a problem with it.
“That’s the disappointing thing, because the players earned something out of today’s game.
“We’re trying to build a bit of confidence and move up. We had the point. We should have done better at the corner; we shouldn’t have turned our back.
“But you hope that when you need it you get a decision to go your way, and we needed a decision to go our way today.”