West Ham manager Slaven Bilic believes the Hammers’ slow start in both halves of the match in the EFL Cup defeat to Manchester United, was the side’s undoing last night.
In a reverse of what happened in the league game at the weekend, United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic opened the scoring after just two minutes. An equalising goal from former United youth player Ashley Fletcher made it 1-1 at half time but they were caught cold once again when Anthony Martial put the home side 2-1 up very early in the second half.
Bilic told reporters after the match that they couldn’t afford such mistakes against a team like United who have such quality in their ranks
“We can’t have a slow start against them because they are very good when they are one up. They have those kind of players. After the slow start, we recovered and looked good but you can’t do the same. And we did. They totally deserved it then after that. You just can’t have that kind of a start in a game like this.”
The loss to United will only place the Croatian under further pressure after a poor start to the season. The Hammers sit 16th in the table with just three wins in 13 league matches, and will face Arsenal at the London Stadium on Saturday evening.
