Bilic – Carroll and Lanzini are back
Slaven Bilic spoke to the media once again ahead of West Ham’s Premier League clash against Sunderland, as reported by the club’s official website.
The Hammers are currently 7th in the league with the Black Cats sitting in 19th place doomed for relegation. Both teams really need a result out of this game, possible European qualification on the line and possible survival for Sam Allardyce’s men.
There has been a massive boost to the West Ham squad as our injury problems are finally being resolved. Carroll and Lanzini are fit for Saturday and Winston Reid will follow soon enough.
They are back in training so that is a positive. Manuel Lanzini has been back in training for a while so that’s good, and he is getting back to full fitness. Andy is back which of course is good. Winston is improving, maybe not for Saturday but soon. But it is looking good, touch wood.
Slaven Bilic also talked about the red card that was recently rescinded from Senegalese midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate.
For me it was obvious, this wasn’t a nasty or bad challenge. We hoped and we expected this decision so we are happy. It’s great to have this option in England, in most other countries you can’t even discuss it. So it is great that you can appeal these decisions, referees are only people and they can make mistakes. So it’s important because the stakes are so high, it is good for English football.
This is the first time that ex-West Ham manager Sam Allardyce returns to the Boleyn Ground and Bilic told the media that despite any comments made by Allardyce the Hammers fans should respect him.
Well they should respect him, he done great for West Ham. He is one of the most famous and long serving English managers, 20 years or so, very successful and charismatic one. He got us back from the Championship and then stabilised the club in the Premier League so he has done amazing job and he should be praised big time.
Lastly, Bilic was asked whether he thought Sam would keep Sunderland in the Premier League.
He has done a good already stabilising them and they are harder to beat, they are more organised. They got four points against Liverpool away and Manchester United, any club in the world would take that. Even when they were 2-0 down at Anfield, they didn’t give up. There’s still a long way to go but they have a big chance to stay up.