Slaven Bilic knows how it goes in his line of work. Once a manager is in
danger, once the narrative becomes entrenched, it can begin to feel
like the long kiss goodbye. “Once that’s opened, then it basically
doesn’t stop,” the West Ham manager said after his team’s 3-2 home
defeat against Tottenham Hotspuron Saturday. “Game by game or two games
by two games – it’s the way it is in modern football. Once you open that
page …”
Bilic turned that page last season, when only a 1-0 win against Spurs
with three games to go persuaded the West Ham hierarchy to stick with
him. But three successive Premier League defeats at the start of this
season ensured that the mention of his name were prefaced by words like
“under-fire” and “beleaguered”.
In these situations, positive results like the win against Huddersfield
Town and the draw at West Bromwich Albion trigger relief and respite.
But the dark clouds never truly disperse and they rolled back over Bilic
during a loss to the club that West Ham fans most love to hate.
The final scoreline looked tight but this was an afternoon in which
Bilic and his team flirted with humiliation. When Harry Kane rattled a
near post on 63 minutes Tottenham were 3-0 up and rampant, looking
threatening every time they came forward. Kane had already scored two to
make it six in four games for him, the outstanding Christian Eriksen
had the other one and Dele Alli was having his best game of the season.
The interplay between that trio was beautiful to watch.
At that point, the inquest into West Ham’s performance had begun.
Bilic’s game?plan worked well for the opening half-hour: his team had
denied Spurs space between the lines, they were getting in their
opponents’ faces and they had exploited the high positions of the
Tottenham wing-backs to work a couple of promising three?on?three
situations.
The way that they fell apart after Kane’s opener was worrying and Bilic
had to carry the can for that. When Michail Antonio went off injured in
the 28th minute his decision to introduce Andy Carroll, rather than
André Ayew or Diafra Sakho, represented a tearing up of the initial
approach.
A manager cannot legislate for the sort of reckless passing error that
Carroll made for Kane’s first goal. But with Carroll on as the No9 and
Javier Hern?ndez pressed out wide into Antonio’s position, West Ham lost
their ability to get behind the Spurs defence; to stretch and harry
them. Consequently, Jan Vertonghen was emboldened to squeeze up on
Carroll, which led to him nicking the ball off the striker to set in
motion the move for Kane’s second goal.
The tactical flexibility belonged to Mauricio Pochettino. With Mousa
Dembélé out injured, the Tottenham manager switched to a 3-5-1-1 system
which got a good performance out of Moussa Sissoko on the right of the
central midfield trio. From the half-hour mark, Eriksen started to drift
forward into space, which was hugely dangerous.
“The second goal is more our sloppiness or giving up for five minutes
than their brilliance,” Bilic said, which sounded like quite the
indictment on him and his team. The complexion of the game would change
sharply in the final quarter, when Bilic could cling to a clutch of
positives. West Ham did not give up. They restored a measure of pride
with the goals from Hern?ndez and Cheikhou Kouyaté. And the home crowd
stayed with them. Crucially, Bilic appears to retain the backing not
only of his players but also the fans.
West Ham’s comeback was influenced by the red card that Tottenham’s
summer signing Serge Aurier received in the 70th minute. The right
wing-back is nothing if not a risk-taker and having been booked, it was a
foolish decision to jump into a tackle on Carroll. It was hardly the
first time that Aurier had left the ground in order to challenge.
After the red card, Pochettino could be seen in conversation with
Hern?ndez, with the West Ham striker seeming to suggest that Aurier was
crazy. “No, not crazy,” Pochettino said. “He only said to me, ‘Wow.
Unlucky: mala suerte.”
Pochettino did not criticise Aurier, however great the temptation might
have been. “I was a player and if you look on Google, you can find many,
many mistakes from me,” he said.
In the end it was Bilic’s errors that came under the spotlight. He is
into the final year of his contract and that is another factor that
frames his situation. “I don’t think about that, I’m not illegal,” Bilic
said with a smile.
“Pressure is a part of my job.” It will be turned up on Saturday for the home game against Swansea City.
West Ham's Slaven Bilic gives instructions to his players during his side’s defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday. (AFP)