It was interesting to read accounts of Slaven Bilic’s post-match conference yesterday evening. Amongst the positives, he praised Payet’s match winning free-kick; emphasised the fact that we actually won the match (while keeping a clean sheet) and thought it a good thing that we had been drawn to play Chelsea, at home in a one-off tie, in the 4th Round. He also indicated that Arthur Makuaku’s knee injury was not a serious one (thank goodness for that!) and commented on Arbeloa playing a first full match, whilst relishing the ‘experience and quality’ that the World Cup winning right-back would bring to the defence. However, Bilic reserved his greatest praise for the performance of 20 year old debutante, Edmilison Fernandes, of whom he stated: ‘Of all the players on the pitch, I am most pleased with Fernandes. He is a good player, he is young but he has the quality and confidence to play forward. He came out with a big plus.’
On the critical side, Bilic acknowledged that the performance was not good enough and there was much room for improvement. Indeed, Bilic sounded relieved to have stopped the rot and argued that: ‘The most important thing is that we won the game and only by winning games, especially with clean sheets, will we get the confidence back that is obviously missing at the moment. It is logical after the last couple of weeks and it is only with wins that we will get it back.’
Certainly, it was an illustration of the importance that Bilic attached to the win that he put the trio of Lanzini, Payet and Antonio on as 2nd half substitutes. On Payet’s match winning free-kick, Bilic observed that: ‘Dimi has done a few of them for us and for France. Everyone knows that when we have a free-kick in that position that he can do it. It is a great moment from a great player.’
So, overall, it was another disappointing team performance, but hopefully Bilic is right and the win and a clean sheet is the most important thing. There are a number of factors that could be said to be contributing to our poor start this season, such as: early injuries to key players, the process of assimilating 13 new players in to the first team squad, the alleged lopsided nature of our summer transfer business (with its supposed over-emphasis upon attacking additions) and fall-out from the post-transition issues that have arisen at the London Stadium. However, it is true that confidence is an enormous factor in football and it provides a viable explanation for the team’s current poor form.
If Bilic is correct, then we may have to just ‘grind out’ a winning run. And in the course of doing so, the squad will begin to gel and the confidence and form will return. We shall see?
Finally, it has been reported on social media that 18 year old midfielder, Marcus Browne, sent out a cryptic tweet in the aftermath last night’s match (subsequently deleted) that seemed to indicate that ‘the youth are hungry’ for first team opportunities. This was then re-tweeted by Reece Oxford, presumably in aggreement? Normally, both Browne and Oxford would have been involved in this type of 3rd round League Cup match, but the fact is that Bilic stuck to a more experienced team because of the supreme importance that he attached to getting the result. They need to understand the overriding imperative motivating the manager’s selections for this match. Both players have a big future at the club and their first team opportunities will come this season.
SJ. Chandos.