West Ham boss Slaven Bilic is refusing to blame the poor performances of his summer signings after their defeat to Brighton on Friday night.
Over the summer, Bilic recruited the likes of Pablo Zabaleta, Marko Arnautovic, Joe Hart, and Javier Hernandez in a bid to push up the table and gain European qualification. However, West Ham have failed to impress in their campaign so far and currently find themselves in 16th place in the table.
A player who came under particular scrutiny from pundits such as Jamie Carragher is Arnautovic. The Austrian striker was labelled as unproductive and disinterested during his display on Friday night whilst Hart was questioned for his part in Jose Izquierdo’s goal.
Bilic told the Standard:
[The new players] are not letting me down. I spoke to [Arnautovic] already and he wants, he tries, it just at the moment, not only for him, we are all in the same boat and we all have to do better. Marko is a great talent, has proven it before, he wanted to come here.
Bilic’s backing for Arnautovic isn’t replicated for Hart as he sees his place being taken by Adrian ahead of their League Cup clash with Tottenham on Wednesday.
[The starter against Spurs] is going to be Adrian, because he is a cup keeper but it’s not because of [Hart’s error] why Adrian will be in goal, it was a plan from the beginning of the season and Adrian did well in his games.
West Ham take on Tottenham Hotspur tonight in the League Cup at Wembley stadium looking for a result to move into the fifth round.
