Bilic Reacts Following Manchester United Defeat

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic expressed his pride in his team after Manchester United sealed a controversial 2-0 win over the Hammers at London Stadium.

His side were reduced to ten men after just 15 minutes after Sofiane Feghouli was shown a hotly-debated straight red card after being involved in a 50-50 challenge with Phil Jones. 

After a battling first half, Juan Mata gave Manchester United the lead in the second, before an off side Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored with 12 minutes to go, killing the contest.

Despite the setback, Bilic insisted that there were far more positives to the performance than the result in isolation suggested.

“I feel that today I have nothing but praise for my players,” the West Ham Manager said.

“They showed that we are a good team and after the red card we reacted in the only possible way - we defended well, but were also dangerous from counterattacks, from switching sides and from set pieces.

“We played until the end, and that’s what I told my players, if we continue to play and to fight we’ll be higher up the table.”

The red card incident has been debated across the footballing landscape, with intense scrutiny on Mike Dean’s performance in the match, and Bilic confirmed that not only was he unhappy with the decision, but that he intended to appeal.

“I said to Mourinho and the fourth official at the time, I wouldn’t be happy with a yellow card,” said Bilic.

“It’s mistimed but the foot wasn’t up, that wasn’t crazy. To be fair, the more and more you see it, it’s more Jones who went in dangerously.

“It’s so early in the game, totally against us and a big mistake for me.

“Of course we will appeal, and if we don’t win then what’s the point of appealing in the first place?”

West Ham will have little time to settle, with fixtures coming thick and fast early in 2017. The Hammers will host their first Emirates FA Cup fixture at London Stadium this Friday, with Manchester City the visitors to East London. 

Despite the question marks over Feghouli’s availability, Bilic went on to add that while he will look to add to his squad, he wasn’t feeling any pressure to dip into the January transfer market quickly, placing his faith in the existing core of players who have seen an upturn in results in recent weeks.

“We have a couple of players coming back now,” said Bilic.

“We’re short of defenders but Reece Oxford is back in training, Sam Byram is back in training and James Collins will be back in training.

“Maybe in some positions we lack quantity or special quality. We’re going to be active, but as I said before I believe strongly in the team that we have, and the team proved me right again tonight.”