Bilic feeling the heat as West Ham struggle

Slaven Bilic knows how it goes in his line of work. Once a manager is indanger, once the narrative becomes entrenched, it can begin to feellike the long kiss goodbye. “Once that’s opened, then it basicallydoesn’t stop,” the West Ham manager said after his team’s 3-2 homedefeat against Tottenham Hotspuron Saturday. “Game by game or two gamesby two games – it’s the way it is in modern football. Once you open thatpage …”Bilic turned that page last season, when only a  1-0 win against Spurswith three games to go persuaded the West Ham hierarchy to stick withhim. But three successive Premier League defeats at the start of thisseason 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 HuddersfieldTown and the draw at West Bromwich Albion trigger relief and respite.But the dark clouds never truly disperse and they rolled back over Bilicduring a loss to the club that West Ham fans most love to hate.The final scoreline looked tight but this was an afternoon in whichBilic and his team flirted with humiliation. When Harry Kane rattled anear post on 63 minutes Tottenham were 3-0 up and rampant, lookingthreatening every time they came forward. Kane had already scored two tomake it six in four games for him, the outstanding Christian Eriksenhad 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 haddenied Spurs space between the lines, they were getting in theiropponents’ faces and they had exploited the high positions of theTottenham wing-backs to work a couple of promising three?on?threesituations.The way that they fell apart after Kane’s opener was worrying and Bilichad to carry the can for that. When Michail Antonio went off injured inthe 28th minute his decision to introduce Andy Carroll, rather thanAndré Ayew or Diafra Sakho, represented a tearing up of the initialapproach.A manager cannot legislate for the sort of reckless passing error thatCarroll made for Kane’s first goal. But with Carroll on as the No9 andJavier Hern?ndez pressed out wide into Antonio’s position, West Ham losttheir ability to get behind the Spurs defence; to stretch and harrythem. Consequently, Jan Vertonghen was emboldened to squeeze up onCarroll, which led to him nicking the ball off the striker to set inmotion the move for Kane’s second goal.The tactical flexibility belonged to Mauricio Pochettino. With MousaDembélé out injured, the Tottenham manager switched to a 3-5-1-1 systemwhich got a good performance out of Moussa Sissoko on the right of thecentral midfield trio. From the half-hour mark, Eriksen started to driftforward into space, which was hugely dangerous.“The second goal is more our sloppiness or giving up for five minutesthan their brilliance,” Bilic said, which sounded like quite theindictment on him and his team. The complexion of the game would changesharply in the final quarter, when Bilic could cling to a clutch ofpositives. West Ham did not give up. They restored a measure of pridewith the goals from Hern?ndez and Cheikhou Kouyaté. And the home crowdstayed with them. Crucially, Bilic appears to retain the backing notonly of his players but also the fans.West Ham’s comeback was influenced by the red card that Tottenham’ssummer signing Serge Aurier received in the 70th minute. The rightwing-back is nothing if not a risk-taker and having been booked, it was afoolish decision to jump into a tackle on Carroll. It was hardly thefirst time that Aurier had left the ground in order to challenge.After the red card, Pochettino could be seen in conversation withHern?ndez, with the West Ham striker seeming to suggest that Aurier wascrazy. “No, not crazy,” Pochettino said. “He only said to me, ‘Wow.Unlucky: mala suerte.”Pochettino did not criticise Aurier, however great the temptation mighthave 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 isinto the final year of his contract and that is another factor thatframes his situation. “I don’t think about that, I’m not illegal,” Bilicsaid with a smile. “Pressure is a part of my job.” It will be turned up on Saturday for the home game against Swansea City.