West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has lamented his side’s poor defence in the 4-2 defeat to Watford on Saturday, claiming that his players just switched off after they went into the lead.
The Hammers were desperate to record a victory against the Hornets and were 2-0 up and cruising after a brace from in-form winger Michail Antonio.
However, Walter Mazzarri’s men rallied to score four unanswered goals and send the home faithful into despair.
The result compounds an already poor start to the new campaign, which is a disappointment after the furore around the club over the course of the summer.
Bilic has stated that he wished he could focus on the positive elements of his side’s attacking play but instead was left to focus on the poor defending.
“We just stopped defending – sometimes as a unit but to me, it was more like mistakes by the back four,” The Express quote the Croat as saying.
“We don’t have to start from lesson one. We’re talking about the same players as last year who were so good in defence. All of them.
“So, of course, we always remind them about basics. Defence is all about basics and help from the midfield and attack. We had it last year and there’s no need to panic, but we can’t afford to do what we did today.
“Instead of talking about our couple of goals, our great second goal, now because of our lack of quality that phase of the game is forgotten.”
West Ham have recorded just three points from their first four games and have also been eliminated from the Europa League.
